The CEO
by Zosie
Summary: Bella Swan has just secured a job working at Midnight Son Enterprises, the company keeping the town of Forks viable.  Her Boss, the CEO Edward Cullen shows instant dislike to her and her trim figure, what the heck is that about? VAMP
1. Chapter 1

The CEO

Chapter One

Bella Swan checked quickly in the mirrored surface of the walls of the elevator and checked everything was in place. No hair escaping from the neat bun she had labored to get just right.

Efficient, attractive, ready to take on her new role was the impression she wanted to put across to her new boss.

Edward Cullen CEO of Midnight Son Enterprises.

She had not met him but she had stalked, no, not stalked, checked him out on the internet.

He was the wonderchild of big business, building this company from the ashes of Newton And Son Ltd that had crashed and burned big time in the economic downturn, now the newly renamed phoenix was flourishing and possibly saving the small town of Forks from becoming a ghost town.

People here needed jobs, and the tiny Mom and Pop shops really could not afford to hire outside help.

Parents were extremely lucky if they had stopped a one single child and now could employ that child themselves. A second child had meant he or she had to move away to find a job.

Now MSE were opening their doors and offering jobs for all who applied so long as the applicants were past students of Forks High School, and Bella was about to become assistant to Jessica Stanley, an overweight but outgoing girl she had befriended in that very school. She hadn't seen Jess for over a year,Bella having moved to Arizona to live with her mother Renee once she graduated.

Mike Newton had offered her a job with his parents company when she graduated but everyone knew it was ailing fast and the job would soon be non- existent so she had moved away and worked for her stepfather Phil Dwyer in Phoenix instead.

The job had been as boring as any job could possibly be, Bella had zero interest in sports of any kind and running around after a baseball team had been somewhat less than exciting, but as her parents Charlie and Renee said, it was a job and those were hard to come by.

The elevator stopped at a floor three floors below where Bella was going and two gorgeous creatures walked in and she moved further back.

"So, I guess I am being moved to Emmett Cullen's staff, I have no idea why, I love working for Edward," the leggy blond sighed to her companion, an equally attractive platinum blond woman, tall and slim as the first.

"He certainly goes through a rapid turnover of staff," the white haired woman agreed.

Bella frowned, they both sounded familiar but there was no way this was Rosalie Hale and Lauren Mallory, those two had been the...how do you say it politely? The chubbiest girls in High School. These women were so slim and neither had a spare inch of fat anywhere. They looked like models.

The doors opened and all three alighted.

"Hi Bella, welcome," a slim brunette smiled and stood in the small foyer, her hands clasped in front of her.

"Um, hi? I am working with Jessica Stanley, could you tell me where she is?" Bella asked, confused this girl knew her name.

"Oh that's right, you always were the jokester," the girl replied, giggling.

Bell blushed. Who was this chick and where was Jess? She had talked to her on the phone several times and told her how nervous she would be on the first day and Jess had promised to meet her right here, before she had to embarrass herself walking from office to office to find her.

"Could you just tell Jess I am here, please?" Bella asked tensely.

"Bella, this is me, Jessica Ann Stanley, former pupil of Forks High, the nerdy girl you allowed to befriend you and become cool by association. Look at me, same hair, same teeth only I had them straightened on the company health plan, same nose unfortunately, but the plan does not cover plastic surgery."

Bella stared and her jaw threatened to drop.

This WAS Jess but wow, what an improvement!

"You look amazing, you have lost like half your..."

Bella blushed and stopped, how rude she was being, but she just had no warning.

"Half my bodyweight exactly. You can say it," Jess giggled.

"How ?" Bella asked, incredulous.

"You will not believe it, my boss told me to give up cream and sugar in my coffee and in one year I have slimmed down to this! In fact, now he insists I have pure cream and three spoons of sugar, thank God, I really missed them so much. Black coffee just sucks."

Really? Stopping the sugar and cream from her coffee had made that much weight disappear? How come every fat woman didn't just do that then, if it was so easy ?

"Aren't you afraid of putting the weight back on?" Bella asked.

"I was at first but Edward assured me my metabolism has changed forever now, finally I can eat all I want and never gain an ounce. Wait until you see The Tubby Trio, remember Rose Hale and Lauren Mallory and Angela 'the Blob' Webber ? They all work here and they are all so slim you will squeal when you see them.

Talk about a make over. They should have entered us all in The Biggest Loser when we first started here because we would have won, hands down. Wait, Rose and Lauren were in the elevator with you, didn't you recognise them ?"

Bella stared at Jess. She had been right, that was Rose and Lauren after all ? They looked like the skinny 'after' versions of the girls she had known most of her life.

It was a national epidemic, we were just all so over wieight this generation, all those ridiculously fat filled school dinners she personally held responsible.

Bella had never been even slightly chubby but she had always brown bagged it from home, lean chicken breast, salad, no dressings and plain water to drink all through High School.

Everyone else had stuffed themselves with the free school dinners, paid for by the very generous Cullen family.

Bella had tried to form a committee to change the menu's, all they were given were hamburgers and french fries, pizza's with so much topping you could not taste the crust, macaroni and cheese with the richest sauce ever, she had tasted a mouthful once and felt her arteries shrink, and the beverages were no better. Coffee made with pure cream and coffee flavor, milkshakes so full of cream and ice cream it was a wonder every student hadn't had a coronary by Senior Year, fruit juices with no pulp, just a dozen pieces of squeezed fruit so the sugar content was maximised.

Nobody had wanted to put a stop to the fatty delights and Bella had alone fought and lost. The Headmaster had ridiculed her claims and told her the students need the extra calories because Forks was such a cold place to live.

Yeah, but surely it was better to buy a warm padded parka rather than grow your own six inch layer of fat?

At least the Cullens' were now helping those girls they had caused to be so overweight, Bella thought.

As they should.

"So, this is my desk, you can share with me, the new typing pool girls from last years Senior class are through there. Don't feel awkward being the new girl, Bella, they are all new as well."

Bella raised an eyebrow at the room full of overweight ex-students. Oh , they really must be new, they were still carrying their excess covering of fat layers. It would be fascinating to see if this lot slimmed down like the last years intake evidently had.

"Come and meet the Boss. Hold on to your cherry, he is utterly gorgeous. It has been known for girl's to spontaneously ovulate in his mere presence," Jess sighed dreamily.

The door opened and the most beautiful creature Bella had ever laid eyes on raised his eyes and smiled at her. The smile quickly faded as his eyes raked over her.

"Who is this, Jessica? I told you to only employ ex students of Forks High School. This skinny girl could never have attended there. She is not out of last years intake, what is going on?"

"Mr Cullen, Edward, this is Isabella Swan. She did attend Forks High the same time I did, she has been away for a year."

Mr Cullen stood and walked around, inspecting her from every angle and not liking what he saw.

"Have you been in a concentration camp or a detention center? Did someone lock you up and forget to feed you? Have you flirted with bulimia or anorexia, nobody with those problems will pass the medical. Leave, go away, you are too skinny to work here."

"Excuse me?" Bella bristled. "Are you saying employment here is based on a person's size and weight, because I believe there are laws against that type of prejudice, usually because people deny larger girl's the same opportunities as slimmer ones, but I am sure the reverse applies as well. My mother is a lawyer who specializes in human rights, think before you deny me the chance to take up the job I was offered before you laid eyes on my disappointingly skinny body, please, Mr Cullen. I can call her and have her fly here to represent me in a single day."

"Fine, work here, but go tell Emmett or Jasper to fatten you up."

"Mr Cullen, the way you are speaking to me is insulting and borders on harassment. I have a witness here, do you wish to take back those cruel jibes and start over?" she offered, very much against her nature. She half hoped he would refuse, and would keep up the litany of insults so she could sue his ass.

He straightened and put his hands behind his back.

Bella turned at the slight sound at the door behind her and saw Dr Carlisle Cullen, her own doctor for her entire childhood standing there, looking quite angry.

"I apologise, of course you may proceed to claim the position you were hired to fill, please excuse my reaction, I simply am used to more well padded new staff members, your...perfectly acceptable slim figure threw me off balance for a moment."

The words were right but his strange yellow eyes were cold and blank and his voice had lost the all emotion.

"What my son means is, welcome to the company, Miss Swan, and we hope you enjoy working for us," Dr Cullen said, smiling and holding out a hand.

Bella grinned victoriously at the ignorant clod behind the desk and took Dr Cullen's hand and shook it.

She shivered a little, she had forgotten he had that circulation problem. His hand was as cold as ice, almost.

"Thank you, Dr Cullen, I am sure I will enjoy working here."

Jess grabbed her arm and pulled her from the office and Bella saw the doctor growl as he shut the door and no doubt told his son what a complete ass he was, and a douche into the bargain.

"Get her out of my staff pool and into one of my brother's, or you will be sorry, you know what will happen," she heard Edward Cullen bark in reply at whatever his father had said far too quietly for them to overhear.

What a complete pig. She had never been considered too skinny to be employed, that was just ridiculous. She was small, granted, but she came at just under the average BMI recommended. There was no way she was fattening up to keep her dick of a boss satisfied.

xxx xxx

"Edward, be reasonable, Isabella Swan is the daughter of the local Chief of Police don't forget and her mother Renee is quite famous, we cannot afford any attention being drawn our way. The Volturi have never bothered to monitor you because you have never actually killed any of your staff but you must simply treat Miss Swan as an employee and not a source of your...addiction. No feeding from her. You don't feed from Jess any more, just pretend Bella is a year long employee as well."

"Fine, but I want her transferred to Jasper or Emmett as soon as is legally possible. I don't like having new blood making the air reek of temptation."

"Of course, just let her do her job and I will have Jasper come and dazzle her so she requests the transfer herself then there will be no repercussions."

Carlisle left the office and closed the door carefully behind him.

Edward was right about one thing, she did smell good.


	2. Chapter 2

The CEO

Chapter 2

"So, you do the copying down in the room I showed you, Mr Edward Cullen needs 250 copies of this report, and then, he suggested you go and see if Mr Jasper needs your help with anything. There's not a lot to do today, you may as well go check out the other brothers. Emmett is really big and a bit scary but Jasper would be the most amazingly gorgeous creature on the planet if it weren't for Edward existing. Wait until you see him, he is delicious."

"Jess, I didn't come here to check out the management, I came here to learn and do my job well. Please stop with the exaggerations, and remember, we are their employees, not their harem. There had better not be any inappropriate liaisons between Edward Cullen and his staff, I see they are all female. How come no males get the same job offers? His family and their so called generosity with the school food made just as many boys overweight."

"They do employ males, just they are on a floor below, behind closed doors. We never see them during working hours and they too have slimmed down, wait until you see Riley Biers."

"There's no way he has lost half his bodyweight already," Bella whispered back, blushing at her own prejudices and cruelty. "Even if he has, that still makes him enormous."

"Actually, he is about the same size as Emmett now, all muscle, all toned, he could still drop a few pounds but Bella, he is awesome now. I wish I had accepted his offer to take me to Prom.

I know we would have been the butt of every joke but if he had been my boyfriend back then, now I would have such an amazing stunner at my side. The wait would have been worth it."

Bella scowled at her and walked down the hallway to the Copy Room.

250 copies she punched in, everything else was set on the automatic default settings, so she placed the report face down and prepared to wait.

Edward Cullen followed his nose and paused outside the door. The Copy Room was small and airless, it had no window, she would smell even better in that enclosure. He wanted to savor the bouquet even if he couldn't taste the wine.

He slipped in and closed the door and inhaled.

Perfect.

Bella Swan turned and gasped at the sight of the beautiful man standing there, eyes closed, his smile full but somehow scary. What the fuck was he doing, just standing there sniffing like she was a baked dinner ready to be carved up?

She turned and thought about what to say to remind him of inappropriate behaviour, but before her brain had strung the necessary words together, there was a slight breeze and he was gone.

How the fuck did he do that? Was he a magician?

She frowned and removed the first batch of copies.

xxx xxx

Edward gasped and collapsed onto his chair in his office. No, this was not right. Carlisle and Esme had always said his creator had turned him too young, he had never had this type of reaction to anyone, vampire or human. His pants were uncomfortable and tight and he opened the fly and peered down.

He had an erection.

His first.

This was not good.

He knew what happened if vampires had their wicked way with humans, they ended up being both desert and then dinner.

He probably would be in a lot of trouble if he ate Miss Swan.

He reached a hand down and experimentally touched himself. Oh, okay, that felt quite...nice.

He grasped his penis in his hand and stroked up and down and his eyes drifted shut.

He would just do this for a single minute, he wasn't some horny teenager.

Okay, he was an eternal teenager, that was the problem.

An eternal seventeen year old who had been too obsessed when human with growing up and joining the army to be bothered with girls, he was going off to be a hero after his eighteenth birthday the very next month. He didn't want to leave a sweetheart behind to cry over him if he died in battle, like so many young men did.

Thus he had studiously read his Bible and refused all temptations to take himself 'in hand' even, he had simply thought pure thoughts and the need had eventually passed before any physical reaction had shown up, particularly if he stood under an ice cold shower.

He told his mother Elizabeth he was toughening up for life on the battlefield, there would be no warm baths and home comforts there.

Edward stroked faster and gasped in air that he usually needed only to allow speech, somehow this activity made him feel like his lungs needed to be filled.

Finally it was done and the venom spurted long and hard jerkily, covering his trousers that sat mid thigh.

He sat and enjoyed the relaxation that followed the furious need, now satisfied.

As he looked at the mess, he cursed and pulled the pants off, and helped himself to another pair from the closet. That damned Alice had put them in there this morning and just smirked when he asked her why he would need two pairs of clean trousers.

Blasted Pixie.

He would have blushed if he could have, knowing his 'sister' knew he was going to participate in solo sex today for the first time ever. He hoped she would keep her thoughts to herself and not tell Emmett or Jasper. They would have a field day making rude remarks if they knew and Edward would die of shame if Esme knew.

He shredded the fabric of the pants until it was a mass of cotton fibres and venom. And a metal zip. He crushed the fastener in his fist and blew the resulting coppery sand from his palm.

It would seem Miss Swam affected him in a much different way to the other human girls. He must avoid her at all costs. Jasper must dazzle her and lure her to his office and then hopefully keep her in such a flustered altered state she would be unable to fulfil her duties and they could legally dismiss her.

A knock sounded at his door and he called for Jess to enter. He frowned, she wasn't thinking anything at all, usually her mind was filled with images he had found amusing but frustrating, seeing he always knew even if he could have done those things safely, he just had not matured enough in his last life to follow through in this life.

He felt unsettled, things were changing, and that rarely happened in this new half life.

The door opened and the beautiful brunette stood there, 250 copies exactly he instantly calculated, in her hand.

"Mr Cullen? Jess isn't at her desk, do I leave these with you?" she asked and Edward nodded, keeping the curse words swimming in his brain contained. His erection was back, harder than ever and he scarcely managed to keep his actions at bay until she closed the door behind herself.

xxx xxx

"Come in, Miss Swan, I have been expecting you," the brother named Jasper murmured, looking her over. He could see Edward's problem immediately, she would never survive a single feeding session, she had little bodyfat and none to spare.

Jasper asked her to sit at the chair in front of his desk and smiled as he caught her unwary gaze. This would only take a minute, then he could captivate her and have her begging to work in his pool, and he could them keep her in a state of disorganized confusion and maybe he would dismiss her for sexually harassing him, that would be a twist of irony that would amuse Edward.

He wished Edward would just leave and wander the planet for a while until he found himself a mate. Once he had a vampire in his bed, his body would be satisfied with animal blood like the rest of the family indulged in.

Apart from anything else, the tricky little contact lenses they had to purchase in bulk to keep his eyes the same shade of yellow as the rest of them had were costing a fortune but the humans would run screaming to the hills if he had his naked red eyes.

Jasper knew what it was like to be alone, he had felt the loneliness and lack of purpose after he parted ways with Maria, before he found Alice.

Without the little Pixie in his bed at nights, he would have reverted back to that savage he had been, killing humans in his haste to relieve his thirst.

Sex made the thirst controllable, even with the substituted animal blood, so for Edward, it would never happen unless he mated.

Jasper had explained this a hundred times as his 'parents' had too, but as their oldest son had never experienced sex in any form as a human, it seemed he was never going to be able to as a vampire.

Jasper often wondered if it would be kinder to rip Edward limb from limb and burn him, his life must truly suck. Life ruled by his thirst and no sexual pleasure. Was it even a life worth living?

Jasper concentrated on the job at hand.

Miss Swan had deep brown eyes that seemed to be as deep as an ocean, unusual for a human. Usually they were somewhat vacuous looking and he never had a single problem dazzling any of them into submission but she was still showing no signs of confusion or meekness, she was not conforming to his will.

He stared harder and she flinched.

"Mr Cullen? Do you need me to do something?" she asked.

"I'm just admiring your eyes, what do you think of mine?" he asked, and she blinked and looked away.

"Mr Cullen, may I remind you I am an employee and here to work? Not stare at your somewhat amazing eyes. Your whole family has these yellowish eyes?" she asked.

Edward had them, Carlisle and his wife Esme did as well, she knew.

"I was actually only fostered by the Cullen's. My surname is Whitlock," Jasper told her, trying to keep her attention.

"Oh, is Edward adopted?" she asked.

"No, he is a Cullen," Jasper lied smoothly. Edward hated his human surname, he found thinking of his actual parents too painful.

"And Emmett?" she asked, brushing a tendril of hair that had escaped the silly bun she had put her long brown hair into.

Jasper scowled, she should not have even noticed the escaping lock. He stared harder.

"Emmett?" she reiterated. "Is he really a Cullen?"

"No, he is a McCarty. And Alice is a Brandon."

"Oh, I had no idea," she replied. "What would you like me to do?"

Jasper almost yelled the answer at her.

"_Gee, I dunno, conform and become so distracted you fall in love with me a little and want to join my staff for a start."_

Naturally he didn't actually say anything. He was completely in control of himself, if not her.

A knock sounded at his door and Alice danced inside.

"Oh, so this is Bella Swan."

The girl looked up at her and Alice started.

"Jasper, isn't she..."

"Nope, not even slightly. Alice, have a glimpse and see if it's working at all, just slowly or is she immune?" he asked quietly.

"See if what's working?" Bella asked, standing up. "I don't mean to be rude but this entire family is a little off. Except Carlisle and Esme, them I like. Maybe I should go get a job at the diner, it would be simpler," she sighed and walked out the door.

Alice stared into space then clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

Just as suddenly she froze and her lips formed an 'O' and she screamed a long, loud single word.

"Nooooooo."

"What's happening, Ali?" Jasper asked anxiously.

"She is immune to you and there are only two ways this will end now. Either Edward changes her or she..."

"She what?"

"She kills him," she cried.

**Like it, want more, then REVIEW. If only a few readers bother reviewing I will take it not many of you think it's worth continuing despite so many people on story alert already, and I will take it down, and write something else, it doesn't bother me either way, there are another hundred stories in my twisted brain.**


	3. Chapter 3

The CEO

Chapter 3

"What do you mean, how could a small human girl kill a vampire?" Jasper questioned.

"We need to go home, call a family meeting. Please Jas, don't delay," Alice begged.

Jasper called every family member quickly, and he and Alice raced through the forest to their house. It was faster than driving and they needed their cars to stay in the staff car park to bear witness they were still in that building, working, doors locked, so nobody could check.

"Did everyone answer?" Alice asked worriedly.

"Everyone but Edward, I am redialling constantly. His cell is going straight to voicemail."

"What's going on?" Emmett asked as he, Rose and Esme sat at the dining table, one of the few props they actually used. Rose impatiently flicked the ice blue contact lenses out of her eyes, nobody human had noticed yet that her temperature had dropped lately, and she was hiding her super strength carefully. Those she had attended school with had merely been amazed about her weight loss followed by the sudden perfection she had become overnight.

She enjoyed all the attention, all her life she had been pretty but overweight, and she had hated the comments.

"Oh, that Rosalie is so pretty what a shame she is so chunky."

She was showing them now, Emmett had chosen her, out of all the girls Edward had reduced, to be his mate and she was looking forward to their wedding day so she could finally announce she was with Emmett. Workplace rules prevented relationships between staff and Managers so it would appear to come out of the blue but that was how it had to be, to avoid any problems. She also couldn't wait for their wedding so she could show the world what a perfect bride looked like.

She sat beside her mate at the shiny silky oak table and he held her hand.

Of course, they did not eat there, Esme would hardly allow large deer or grizzly bears to thrash about on it and scratch the surface.

Carlisle appeared in his seat at the head of the table as Jasper and Alice sat down.

"Whats the emergency, Alice?" Carlisle asked.

"Bella Swan. I saw a vision, she either becomes one of us or else she somehow kills Edward."

"How could that be, she is, what, 108 pounds of human," Emmett scoffed.

"I could kill her for you, I haven't killed anyone yet," Rose reminded them. Why be a vampire and not get to kill some annoying human?

"No, Rose, there are only two ways the future can go. Either Edward takes her as his mate and changes her to one of us, or she kills him, I just can't see how."

"If you can't see how, then how do you know?" Carlisle asked."What do you see?"

Alice stilled and Jasper hurriedly pushed a pencil into her hand and white paper instantly appeared under the pencil tip.

She sketched rapidly, in a daze, as they all watched.

Edward was lying in a meadow, surrounded by wildflowers. He was not moving, which in itself was not a worry, vampires could settle and sit still for days if they had to. He was on his back and had his eyes open, looking to the sky . Strangely, he was completely naked. Bella Swan stood over his body, naked also.

"See, he is dead, she kills him," Alice exclaimed.

Emmett and Jasper caught one another's eyes and grinned.

"This is not funny, this is serious, deadly serious," Alice wailed.

"Alice, my sweet, I think you have mixed up the nature of the vision. What you are seeing is not death but as the French say it, "la petite mort" or "the small **death**" meaning he has had sex. With Bella Swan, obviously."

Alice stilled and checked her vision again.

"Are you sure? I see him there day after day, if it was sex, wouldn't I just see it the once?"

"Oh I think if anyone made it to 109 then finally had sex, you could pretty much guarantee he would go back day after day for more, I'm just surprised he stopped long enough for your vision to show you them between sessions," Emmett chortled. "See if you can catch them at it and draw that!"

"Way to go, Bro," Jasper murmured. It was about time and it would mean so many good things for the family. Now they would all be matched up , mated, whether Edward managed to keep Bella human or was forced to change her was irrelevant to him, he just needed his brother to be happy and sexually active. They could finally stop fattening up the students and providing feeders to Edward, his eyes would change and no longer need contacts, and now he would hunt animals with them on their hunting trips. They were such fun, Jasper couldn't wait to introduce Edward to the delicious nectar of the mountain lion.

Of course, maybe he should suggest Edward take things slowly, they had a new batch of overweight feeders to slim down.

"Should we change what we are willing to supply for lunches at the school?" Esme asked.

"I'm completely sure Edward won't need any more than the current batch, so, yes, have them only get salads and grilled meats and water for free, no more deep fried fatty food, no more sauces and cheese. No milk, ice cream or coffee. If that's what the school board want to keep supplying, they can pay for it themselves and this way, the students will get to choose.

Emmett should volunteer to guide some of the current students by encouraging them to take up exercise and sports, maybe offer sessions as a personal trainer. It's not like we need him at work, Alice does the real work every Friday morning when she plays the stock market for a few hours.

Nothing else we do is important," Jasper said.

"I need to offer complete physicals and recommend healthy eating habits and exercise programmes, we all created this problem, we all need to help fix it," Carlisle added.

"Wait, now we will function with barely any staff, what about employment? All these students will be unemployed," Esme worried.

"Not if we start working as a real company, Alice can tell us what to manufacture and we can train the staff in their new roles, and they can have actual jobs. We just need to break even or have Alice work a little extra to make up for our losses."

"Good idea, we could make those lightweight bedrolls for the homeless and distribute them worldwide for free, as our first project," Emmett suggested.

"Good, keep thinking, what else can we do to make a difference?" Carlisle asked.

"Warm clothes for orphans, better food for the hungry, a better method of finding and digging wells for poor villages in the deserts, I have so many ideas," Emmett exclaimed.

"So, emergency over, problem solved or at least contained?" Carlisle asked. Alice shrugged.

"Maybe, all I can go on is what I see. I imagine the boys are right, I guess Edward and Bella will be absent a lot in the near future."

"I hope they get married and Edward changes her," Esme sighed happily. She loved that the last lonely son was finally about to find true happiness.

xxx xxx xxx

Edward watched his phone finally cease to vibrate. Good, the family had given up.

He needed to attempt something and he had been planning his next move for hours.

Self satisfaction was all very well but Edward thought there must be a way of actually having sex with Bella. He had an unlimited capacity for self restraint and he was almost sure he would be able to complete the act with her and still get her through it alive, but how much better would it be if she wanted to have sex with him and consented?

He knew it wasn't necessary, he could dazzle her, overpower her, kidnap her and keep her locked away, bargain her freedom for sex, so many ways he could get her to allow the act but he longed for something more.

He just needed her to want the same thing he wanted.

That meant he had to get to know Bella and understand her and then try a relationship with her.

The whole idea was very scary for someone his advanced age but there had to be a reason she affected him in a way nobody else ever had.

It seemed like a sign from above and he was fairly sure you did not get the go ahead from above if you were simply meant to force a girl against her will.

That seemed unpalatable.

Besides, he was bored with his life and he longed for a challenge.

She didn't like him at all, so it would be a long term battle changing her mind about him, but he was confident he could do this and there was no time like the present.

He wanted to keep his hands off his new favorite toy and next time it gave him a burst of satisfaction, he hoped it would be with Bella's hands instead of his own.

That was his goal.

From various movies he knew the way to a girl's heart was to pretend to be what she wanted and was looking for, so now he just needed to know what her ideal man was.

Then he could fake it in a very sincere manner.

How hard could it be, hadn't he even predicted the fall in gold prices before Alice proved that to be true last month? Wooing was probably similar, know your market.

If you keep ahead of what it was you want to happen, and convince the girl it was what she was choosing to happen, you were home free.

No police involvement.

Manipulation, it was called.

Edward listened carefully to the girls in the outer office and he started to put questions into Jess's head.

She was very easy to access, and the conversation changed abruptly from bands they both liked to listen to, to 20 questions for Edward Cullen.

"My Chemical Romance, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, The Killers," Bella listed.

"Bella, so much more important, don't you think Edward is gorgeous?" Jess suddenly asked.

Bella looked confused.

"Where did that come from?"

"Answer the question," Jessica insisted.

"I guess he is probably the most beautiful man I have ever seen. And the most rude and arrogant," she added.

"Everyone has an off day. He had bad news this morning, his grandparents died unexpectedly, he was so lost in grief he was talking complete rubbish, he didn't know what he was saying," Jess said, and all of a sudden she could recall his grandparents when they visited recently, and took her to lunch with the Cullens.

"Oh you would have loved them, Edward Senior, our Edward was named for him, and his gran were adorable, so happy and friendly, she was a real gran like you don't see nowadays. Knitted him socks and made him chocolate cakes. We all adored her, both of them really. The old man was a bit of a flirt but we all loved him," she waxed lyrical as Edward created images of a couple he had seen on television into her head.

Everyone in the movie liked this old couple, they must be close to the ideal grandparents for humans, he reasoned.

"What was his gran's name?" Bella asked and Jess frowned.

Edward frowned.

They all called the old woman in the movie 'Gran', why wasn't that good enough for the Swan girl?

"Heidi," Jess said suddenly and Edward cursed that the only other film he could think of was a child's movie made by Disney about 45 years ago.

"Heidi? How unusual," Bella answered, happy now.

"What's your favorite color?" asked Jess.

"Um, green I guess," Bella answered.

Green. How interesting. Edward pulled up the order for his contact lenses and altered the color from their special customised yellow to green. The color chart showed various shades of green. Neon lime was interesting but he didn't think that was close to the green his eyes had been as a human so he went with jade.

Immediate delivery, incurring a $50 surcharge. Tick.

He rarely looked in his closet, Alice laid out a suit and silk shirt and hideously expensive handmade tie every evening so he simply put them on the next day and everybody said what a snappy dresser he was.

He even wore the same on weekends around the house or running through the forest, why mess with what's working?

He was able to instantly recall every item in that closet from the single glance he had taken once, about a month ago.

Nothing green, how remiss of Alice to not know Bella Swan would be coming and like green. She was losing her touch. Edward pulled up a catalog for an online men's clothing store and entered the word 'green' in the search bar.

"How do you prefer men to dress?" Jess asked.

"What the heck, Jess, we were discussing the looks and talent of Gerard Way versus Matt Bellamy, what's the weird change of subject?"

"You really need to answer this. You prefer Yves St Laurent to Gucci, right, when it comes to men's suits ? The blue pinstripe in year round wool?"

"The what to what? I like men dressed casually, I never saw a man in a suit until I started working here. I don't think Charlie even wore a suit to his own wedding."

Edward frowned. She didn't appreciate his clothing taste? Well, she didn't appreciate Alice's, actually. Damn, that pixie had given him a bum steer when it came to fashion, it seemed.

"I quite like those jungle print cargoes, Jake wears them a lot and they look damned sexy if they are the new fitted style, I hated the whole baggy falling down jeans look, it reminded me of a toddler with a poopy diaper pulling his jeans downwards."

No poopy diaper pants, Edward checked. Fitted, not baggy.

Wait.

Jake?

Jake was a male's name.

That was not good, unless it was her brother.

Then she may associate with him.

He must check her personnel file.

"Do you like man on top?" Jess asked.

Edward had seen some of the human porn Emmett found so amusing, it was polite to ask a girl 'Do you want to ride me, Baby?' and he would be sure to do that. Also girls like to try girl on girl action, he wasn't sure who to ask to be her partner in that, Alice would probably refuse. Maybe Rose? And human women liked freshly washed laundry on the clothesline so long as it was whiter than the neighbors wash, and discrete pantie liners, and coffee the brand that George Clooney drank.

He could get the pantie liners and coffee but was unsure what to do about the whiter than white laundry. Oh, and volumizing mascara, they went quite crazy over than, and those low calorie fruit and nut bars, no woman should leave home without one in her purse in case of sugar cravings that could be satisfied naturally, with the help of the fresh unadulterated fruit added.

He must get some and put them on his desk in case she had a low sugar moment.

Edward suspected George may be a vampire, he hadn't aged that much in all these years.

He seemed to be able to dazzle women as well, clearly he was not human.

"How do you feel about rushing through the forest on a man's back faster than the human eye can follow? You wouldn't barf or anything?"

"Jess, truly, just tell me, did the weight loss programme include drugs of any sort? Speed? Cocaine?" Bella asked.

Jess looked confused.

"What flowers do you prefer? Roses, tulips, violets, daisies, belladonna?"

Belladonna, it even had her name in it's title, he probably should go with that.

"Um, belladonna is a noxious deadly weed," Bella answered.

Edward growled, he wasn't buying them for her to eat! What a strange human she was. Roses then.

Her next words caused him to still and freeze in place so it was lucky no humans witnessed it.

"I prefer wildflowers anyway, so long as they are still alive, growing in the ground, reaching up for the sun. There's no prettier flowers in the universe."

She was perfect.

He planned on taking her to his secret meadow for her deflowering and she would be enchanted by the wildflowers there, that would make the whole sex thing far easier surely?

"Name five foods you would eat if it was your last day on earth, as a human anyway," Jess stated. Edward was acutely aware he may injure her and be forced to save her life by changing her instantly.

"Gosh, and I always thought you were normal bordering on boring. Um, strawberries, lobster, chocolate, non baked cheescake, cookie dough. Jess, what would I be turning into if it was my last day on earth as a human?"

"How would I know, don't ask me," Jessica replied.

xxx xxx

Alice lay back against her mate on the top of the highest tree in the forest and sighed. Making love up here wit this panoramic view was fun. She stilled and her eyes glazed over.

"Oh God no!" she shrieked."Edward, no!"

"What's happened? Is he dying?" Jasper asked worriedly.

"No , worse, I just saw him, he bought his own clothes, Jas! He is dressed head to toe in all shades of green. He looks like a leprechaun! I have to stop him before any humans see him. They will know he isn't normal."

Jas sighed and watched his mate disappear at the speed of light through the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

The CEO

Chapter 4

Edward growled at Alice as she babbled on about his clothing and he sighed as she flashed an image into his brain. In it, he had walked into his office wearing the new outfit he had chosen for himself and both Jess and Bella had burst into laughter, rolling about the floor in a most unladylike manner. Jess said something about a sea of mushy peas, Bella had bitten her bottom lip through in her effort to hide her reaction, and a trickle of blood slid down her chin.

Edward had then flown at her and sucked the blood away, sucking endlessly until she lay dead on the floor, so he reluctantly took off the outfit and dressed as Alice ordered.

She had bought him a nice pair of dressy black denim jeans, fitted, not baggy, and a plain black button shirt, which she rolled the sleeves up and insisted he did not tuck it in at his waist. That was actually handy, it hid his now ever present erection.

She held up the sea green cowboy boots and shook them at him.

"Edward, seriously? We have been together over fifty years, what made you think these were acceptable footwear?" she asked, annoyed.

"Bella likes green, I need her to fall in love with me."

"Dressing like a tossed salad will not achieve that goal. You need to get to know the girl, let her get to know you, see what you have in common. What does she like? Movies, music, books, things you can discuss. You could take her to a concert, or to dinner, buy her a book, little things mean a lot to human girls. Go visit her bedroom, that's where the most evidence of her true personality will be."

Edward nodded, that sounded reasonable.

"I'm keeping the eyes," he warned her and Alice sighed and nodded.

He ran from the Cullen house and stopped under the window of the house he could smell Bella lived in. The window was open so he quickly scaled the tree beside it and jumped lightly into her room. He was startled by a life sized cardboard cutout of a pirate in the corner, so he approached and looked at it carefully. Ah, Johnny Depp being Captain Jack Sparrow. So Bella either liked pirates or Johnny Depp. He quickly calculated the actor's height.

5 foot 9 inches. That was not tall and online polls proved most girls like tall men, so there was a 89% chance it was not the actor she liked.

Must be the whole pirate thing.

He felt quite sorry for Johnny Depp, the man was quite attractive, it was a pity his shortness would prevent women from being obsessed with him. Probably make just one or two more movies then be spurned and sent home from Hollywood, Edward reasoned. Women were so illogical, they should forget his lack of height and concentrate on his positives, he was pretty, he was funny, and he could act very convincingly.

Edward approached her desk. iMac, mug with pencils and pens inside, and a realistically sized old plastic doll. He picked the doll up and it 'mama'ed at him. The clothes smelt vaguely as if a human had once worn them.

God no, don't tell me she likes those small human things, what are they called? Babies? Hadn't she smelt them? He had never been tempted to drain one, the odour they emitted was stomach churning.

Maybe that was why she had a plastic one instead. Good choice.

He sat it down again.

Photos in frames. Baby Bella, eek! Small toddler Bella, an improvement. Not so scrawny and bald now. Schoolgirl Bella, hmm, quite bearable. Teenage Bella, nice. Teenage Bella with a boy, not nice.

Edward growled.

She was not looking at this boy like a brother, he was starting to suspect this may be the one called Jake. He looked nothing like her, in fact...

Edward bristled and fell into a defensive crouch.

He knew this boy or maybe his relatives.

Ephraim Black.

Wolf.

She hung with wolves. Further proof, a photo of six or so Quileutes and Bella. She looked so unafraid of them, what was she thinking? He should kidnap her after all and protect her from the enemy.

More photos, more Quileutes, a pretty woman with a heavily scarred face. The handsome man she was with was clearly her mate.

Bella knew the damage a wolf could cause even his nearest and dearest yet she still stayed in their presence? Was she simple?

He kind of hoped so, that would make things far easier. She had argued with him, that was not the brightest thing to do with your new Boss. Nobody else had ever done that.

He quickly scanned the room, he should leave here soon and go to work.

Purple covers on her bed, a picture of a wolf on the wall, small reminders of herself growing up, drawings done with her then childish hand, a painted image of her handprints at 5 years, eleven months and three days he calculated.

Purple and pirates, that was all had he learned about her here.

And she liked danger.

xxx xxx

"Did you get contacts?" Bella asked as she stood before Edward at his desk.

"Yes. No. Would you prefer I had or that this was my natural eye color?" he asked.

"Green is cool but the rest of your family has yellow eyes, so I suspect these are the contacts."

"If you find green is cool for eyes then this is my real eye color," he replied. It was important to give girls the answers they wanted to hear. He read that in a magazine.

"I prefer the truth to a lie," Bella stated.

Edward smiled, how sweet was that? Maybe he should just tell her he wanted to have sex with her and that he was a vampire, then.

Oh, but that would get back to the Volturi and they may eliminate her before they got to have sex so he could not tell her.

He would stick with lies, then.

"I, too, prefer the truth," he stated.

Humans were very strange, he read in Cosmo about 66% of women did not orgasm during intercourse and that could not be true. Why would Mother Nature play a joke like that on half the human race and the prettier half at that? It must be a lie. He could orgasm in seconds with his hand alone, it must be as easy for females too, he reasoned. Otherwise the universe had perpetuated a joke on both genders.

Men could assist his partner with his thumb, but that seemed like hard work.

This was getting complicated.

Maybe he should ask her out on a date.

"I was so sorry to hear your grandparents had died, was it an accident?" she asked.

"Yes, their car killed them." he answered, chances of humans dying in a car were higher than in a plane, so car it was.

"You will miss them, especially your gran, I hear she knitted for you and baked cakes. How sweet."

"Yes, I will miss them both a lot, Edward Senior and Cinderella."

"Cinderella? I thought her name was Heidi?" Bella replied, puzzled.

Damn, wrong movie.

"Ah, Cinderella was their dog and the car killed it as well. I will miss the dog. Dogs can be just as good companions as people to the elderly and housebound. You would understand how close humans can be to their pets; I know you like dogs, what with Jake and all."

"What has Jake got to do with dogs?" she asked. "How do you even know about Jacob anyway?"

"Oh, his family was sort of known to my family a few generations ago," Edward hurriedly replied.

"Really? So you and Jake are friends? He has never mentioned you."

"Not friends, more enemies, old squabble of some sort. So, would you like me to take you to eat?"

"Take me to eat? Like out to dinner?" she replied.

"Sure, you could order whatever you liked, lobster, cookie dough, whatever. I have money."

"Where exactly would we be going?" she asked. She was not sure she knew any restaurant that actually served cookie dough as a meal.

"You choose, wherever you like to feed is fine with me."

"Well, do you like Italian food? There is a nice Italian place in Port Angeles. I've been meaning to try it and see how good the food is. It's highly recommended. Three stars I think."

"Fine, then tell Jess to make a booking for seven o'clock," he replied.

"That would be fine with me," Bella answered.

xx

Edward walked to her front door and knocked. Her truck was in the driveway and he could here the sounds of her rushing about cleaning her mouth with something mint flavored, and her hair smelled nice even from the doorway.

The door opened and Edward stood face to face with the Police Chief of Forks.

"Good evening, may I formally introduce myself, I am Edward Cullen. I am taking Isabella out to eat and it is consensual, no police involvement needed," he smiled, and waited for the dazzle to make the man relax and smile in return.

"I know every cop from here to Port Angeles, in fact I am their boss, keep that in mind," Charlie Swan replied. He looked quite severe and almost angry so Edward stood straighter and smiled wider. Why was this man not charmed with his manners and excellent presentation? Alice had dressed him very pleasingly to the eye. And Esme had assured him he looked very handsome.

"She usually only dates Jacob Black. I would have expected there to be laws in place at work to prevent you dating employees," Charlie stated.

"Oh, Isabella works for Jessica, not me," Edward assured him. "I'm not even sure if we are keeping her."

"Excuse me," Charlie blustered, his fingers twitching at his side.

"I'm going to have her eat food while we are out tonight, don't worry,I know what happens on dates," Edward assured him.

Most men preferred women with curves and rejected the ultraskinny fashion look as undesirable so Charlie would be grateful he was feeding Bella.

"Watching a curvaceous woman can feel like a reward in the brain of men, much as drinking alcohol or taking drugs might, research now reveals.

These new findings might help explain the preoccupation men can have toward pornography, so scientists add.

Shapely hips in women are linked with fertility and overall health. As such, it makes sense evolutionarily speaking that studies across cultures have shown men typically find hourglass figures sexy."

Edward always liked to back up his statements with facts.

Charlie was rather red in the face and his heart was beating too fast. He should probably see a doctor, Edward thought.

Bella walked quickly down the staircase and Edward smiled and handed her the flowers he had purchased for her.

"Roses, not Belladonna, that would be foolish and harmful to your health," he informed her.

She raised a single eyebrow then took the flowers from him and handed them to her father.

"Put these in water for me, Dad. See you later."

"What should I tell Jacob if he calls?" Charlie asked, eying Edward Cullen suspiciously. He could not be as clueless as he appeared.

"Tell him I am on a date, what else would you say?" she answered and pulled the door shut.

xxx xxx

Bella perused the menu and decided on mushroom ravioli and Edward happily agreed and ordered the same. She asked for Coke so he agreed to that as well.

"So, does the workplace have a no dating policy I should know about?" Bella asked.

"It's fine if the couple marry, Emmett is about to marry Rose Hale," Edward informed her. Maybe he should marry her and prevent any problems arising.

"Really, I didn't know they were dating," she answered.

"That's because there would be trouble if anyone knew. Marriage can be pleasing and satisfying to both parties involved," he informed her.

"I'm sure it can for many couples. It didn't work out well for my parents. Carlisle and Esme seem really happy together though, how long have they been married?" she asked.

"Oh, around 90 years," he replied.

"Sorry, how long did you say? It sounded like 90 years," she laughed.

"Of course, less than that, say 30 years?" he tried.

"Nice, I guess it seems like 90 years sometimes when they have been together that long."

"Hmm," he replied, unsure whether he should even speak to her, he kept saying the wrong things. It had been 90 years, he had been Best Man for them. He remembered every minute of the ceremony.

Luckily the waitress brought their meals and drinks over then so she ate and Edward quickly hid food in the napkin on his lap and faked eating also. Bella seemed friendly and relaxed which was good but halfway through the meal he started to feel strange.

He couldn't tear his eyes away from hers, they were like Jasper had described, deep pools of velvet. He felt like he may just fall into them. He placed his hand on the table, within her reach and a couple of times she grazed her fingertips lightly across it as she reached for her Coke and breadsticks. Edward could not fake drinking the Coke so he pushed his glass towards her when she finished her own.

It smelled very peculiar, like a mixture of acid and other chemicals but she seemed to like drinking it.

"I have an idea. Emmett is starting his own company up, still in the same building, you could work there and we could date openly," he suggested.

"When is he doing that?" she asked.

"Now, well, tomorrow," he decided.

"Okay," she smiled. She decided she liked him a lot more away from the workplace and now she understood his strange comments were from grief, she could forgive his jibes about her weight. Jake was getting way too comfortable and taking her for granted, so maybe a new man in the picture would make him step up his game a little.

That was all she wanted from Edward, someone to make Jake sit up and take notice, she thought.

Of course, if it backfired and she fell in love with Edward, that would not be the worst thing in the world to happen. She studied him carefully as she ate. His face was magnificent, his eyes a gorgeous shade of green that she hoped was his natural eye color, she still couldn't work out if he meant they were colored by contacts or not. His physique was nice, slim, understated but strong, nothing like Jake's but she had never gone for overly built guys anyway.

His hair was amazing, her hands twitched at the want to grab and pull and just run her fingers through that coppery softness.

No, she preferred Jake's long black silky hair, she reminded herself but somehow she felt herself wavering. She had never seen that shade of copper in hair before, it was too beautiful to be artificial and suddenly a picture of herself with a copper haired baby in her arms filled her mind. She bit her lower lip and tried to change the image to a small black haired son but the image refused to change.

"I would like to take you to a movie, maybe, after dinner tonight," Edward said, hoping against hope she would say yes.

"Great, what movie?" she asked, laying her fork down on her now empty plate.

"You can choose, I really just want to extend the time we spend together," he admitted honestly.

Bella was a little surprised, a man who didn't attempt to play games was rare. He seemed quite openly attracted to her.

"Would that count as two dates,?" Edward asked her.

"Um, I don't think so, I think we would have to go out together on another occasion to count as a second date," she informed him.

She saw that was not the answer he hoped for.

"Why do you want this to count as two dates?" she asked.

Edward smiled.

She liked the truth.

"Because apparently it's most likely for a couple to have sex on a third date so I am looking forward to that one the most," he said with a smile.

"That's a little presumptuous," she answered, but she didn't seem angry.

"Would you care for desert?" he asked.

"No, I'm fine, thank you," she answered, draining the second glass.

Edward called for the check and paid, adding a large tip to ensure good service in future and led Bella to the car and opened her door. The cinema was across the other side of town but they arrived quickly and he parked close by and held her hand as they crossed the street.

"Oh, there's Jake, and his friends from the Res," Bella told Edward as they reached the ticket booth.

Jake stopped mid sentence and stared at her, then at the man buying the tickets, then back at Bella.

He walked over to her and nodded at Edward.

"So, what's going on? What are you doing here with him?" he asked gruffly.

"I'm on a date, I will talk to you at dinner tomorrow night. Have a good evening, I intend to," she said, turning her back to the tall black haired boy and taking the arm Edward offered.

"So, what's the movie showing tonight?" Bella asked.

Edward would have paled if it were possible. He would have suggested they go home now and try again another night had the boy not been there. Bella clearly wanted to show him she was dating Edward as well, so he had to accept his fate and buy the tickets.

"It's called 'Vampire's Suck'" he shuddered, slightly afraid of what this movie may reveal.


	5. Chapter 5

The CEO

Chapter 5

Bella yawned and ate more popcorn, the movie was rather random and strange but she enjoyed sitting beside Edward in the dark and breathing in his aroma. He smelled different to other boys, men, well definitely different to Jacob who mainly smelt of seawater and sweat.

Edward smelt of the sun and the breeze and spices and something else she couldn't identify. He smelt really clean and shower fresh compared to most males, as if he didn't sweat almost.

She smiled in the darkness as his hand sought hers and she was not terribly surprised to find his temperature was similar to his fathers. Probably a family condition, Esme had felt cold that time Bella brushed against her, so what hope did the son have with both parents having circulatory problems?

Edward's thumb was stroking her knuckles and his eyes were more on her than on the screen. He seemed almost nervous, so she smiled at him to assure him she was enjoying herself.

"I don't get this movie, it's so inaccurate," he whispered to her, making her skin tingle at the feel of his breath.

"Edward, there are no rules when it comes to mythological creatures. Even if a dozen authors say this rule applies to a vampire or werewolf, it's not a fact seeing they don't exist. Whoever wrote this just has a different view of Vampires."

"Do you want to go? It's rather annoying, I don't get most of what's happening," he admitted.

"Sure, we could go back to your place," she suggested.

His place?

She was unaware he lived with his coven, then. Rose was insisting she and Emmett get their own house as soon as they were married. Edward had thought that strange but she pointed out, that was how it happened with humans, the children grew up and got married and had a home of their own.

Edward was a little concerned as Rosalie seemed to assume she and Emmett would be starting a family soon and that could not happen. Vampires could not breed. It was impossible. Clearly Emmett had neglected to explain this to her.

Most humans assumed Edward was the natural son of Carlisle and Esme, none of them knew how impossible that was.

Rose was starting to worry Edward, if she didn't know about the non breeding, what else had Emmett withheld from her? Her eagerness to kill Bella was troublesome, he must have explained how important keeping a low profile was? If the Volturi heard a single whisper of activities that were even slightly non human, the entire family could be eliminated.

Bella walked along at his side, swinging their hands, chatting happily and he wished he could scan her mind and know what she was really thinking.

The movie had not revealed their secrets, it was nonsensical and had few facts mixed in with the apparent humor. He wondered what type of creature a Kardashian was. They sounded dangerous. He would be sure to avoid them.

He pulled his cellphone from his pocket and called Alice, sure she knew already what needed to be done. Bella was unaware of his actions, he moved so quickly and spoke far too fast for a mere human to be aware.

"It's almost finished, we have furnished it with odds and ends from the main house, the paint is still wet though Edward. Doing a complete renovation of a virtual tumbledown skeleton of a cottage in 30 minutes is a challenge even to us. But we will finish before you arrive, just tell her you had some work done on the place today, hardly a lie! See you soon."

Edward suggested they stop at a bar and have a drink in case Alice needed a little extra time.

Bella asked for a Southern Comfort and Coke so Edward ordered the same and planned to switch glasses every minute or so, too fast to be noticed, so she consumed both drinks.

He excused himself to go to the men's room to remove the one piece of pasta he had been forced to eat when she had fed it to him on her fork.

He was unable to think of a way of refusing, Ali had warned him he must try his best to appear human, and it seemed fully grown men were still sometimes spoonfed like infants so he had played along.

The necessary removal of the food left a bad taste in his mouth but there were a lot of girls lined up outside the Ladies room and he recognised one of the new batch from work and so he smiled at her and she followed him silently to the door that led outside to the alley.

Edward pushed her gently up against the wall and she grinned like a fool and opened her legs to him. He growled, that was not what he wanted, not from her. He leaned in as if to kiss her, and she allowed him access to her throat.

He drank her swiftly, enjoying the taste, it was different to usual, a little heady and medicinal almost. Edward had to stop himself draining her but fortunately several of her giggly friends had followed them outside and stood watching, assuming he was simply kissing her throat. He licked the wound shut and turned to face the onlookers, laying her gently on the ground.

"Hello, ladies, isn't it a nice night? The stars look so close from here, like you could almost touch them."

He walked to the closest girl and gazed into her eyes, hearing the others giggle and he felt a couple blush.

Walking along the line, smiling at each girl, he had them silent but willing in seconds, so he started at the end and worked southward, drinking from each one and sighing at the different tastes. He had always found human blood fairly consistent in flavor, so the altered nectars were intriguing.

This one tasted almost of aniseed? This one was wheaty and pungent. This one almost sour.

Edward disliked only one and barely sipped a mouthful before sealing her and moving on. Too minty.

The final girl tasted the best, malty, so tasty, he was glad he was full to sloshiness and could not drain her completely or he may have had a problem controlling himself.

He thanked them all warmly and made sure they were all lying in the recovery position.

Maybe he should get medical help for them, they reacted differently to the feeders at work. Those girls merely sank into a deep sleep and looked a little pale for the next week or so, thus making it easy for him to know who to drink from next and who to rest for a while.

He called Carlisle and stood back as his father quickly assessed them .

"This one would have died from alcoholic poisoning had you not intervened, good job, Edward. How do you feel?"

"Fine, no problems, energized, ready for some fun," Edward answered, going inside to find Bella.

She was dancing with the wolf boy from the cinema, had he followed them? Edward should have kept more aware and not let Bella's alluring scent cloud his brain.

Edward walked up to the pair and roughly grabbed the dark haired boys shoulder.

"Whatdoyathingyadoingwifmygal?" he asked, surprised to find his words slurring and his feet swaying. The floor was moving up and down, now around, spinning. Edward dropped to his knees and clutched at the smooth floorboards.

God, what was happening? It didn't feel like an earthquake but his vision was wrong, blurry, and the earth would not remain still, how it should.

"Eeedwardd, aarree yyyouu oookkayyy?" Bella asked and he laughed, she was talking funny.

He tried to stand up and he felt strong hands grab him and walk him towards a booth.

"How much has he had?" growled the wolf boy.

"I only saw him with this one drink and he had not finished it yet," Bella replied. She put her hand on his forehead and frowned.

"He seems kind of clammy, do you think someone spiked his drink?" she asked worriedly.

"No, I think he is some Momma's boy who can't hold his liquor. He is drunk, Bella, off his head. I should call Charlie and have him lock him up for the night," he growled.

"Don't you even think of it, Jacob," she answered angrily.

How had he gotten so drunk so fast? It had to be a drug, someone had slipped him roofies or something. Never having done drugs she had no idea what drug may be involved.

Edward put his arm around her and sloppily kissed her face.

"I really likes you, Bella," he slurred.

"Sure you do, did you have anything else to drink on the way to the Men's room?" she asked.

"Oh, I had some fine ladies to drink," he agreed, nodding happily.

Jake laughed and Bella blushed madly.

"Shut it, Jake, he has no idea what he is saying. Get your mind out of the gutter. He was gone like 3 minutes," she snapped.

Edward leaned forward and took a packet of cigarettes and a small cheap lighter out of the pocket of the man in the next booth as the man's attention was aimed at the girl's head in his lap, he lay his head back and closed his eyes as Edward took the items from his shirt pocket, removed a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth, and shakily lit it .

Bella was surprised, she guessed she was seeing another Edward now, the one who drank and smoked. Party animal Edward.

"Come on, baby, sit with me," he said around the cigarette.

Bella sat down and Jake leaned against the wall, grinning like a jackass.

Edward started licking her neck and sighing at the bouquet he must only savor, not taste. She smelt so good.

Bella took the cigarette from his hand and inhaled, choking slightly.

"Bells, stop it. Behave," Jake warned.

She smiled and kissed Edward's cheek, infuriating Jake further.

"How about you go away and stop playing nursemaid and let us have some fun, hey Jake?" she taunted.

"Yeth, Jake, go 'way, go run with your pack," Edward added, swaying in his seat.

His eyes were hooded and his mouth was seeking hers so she stubbed out the butt and turned to face him, straddling across his lap. Edward smiled and stroked her hair and leaned in and kissed her, gently at first but as he felt the tightening in his pants, he pulled her face closer and slid her body so his erection was under her warmth. Even through the haze of alcoholic blood, he could detect her arousal, and he ran his hands down her sides, stopping at her hips and grinding her body on top of his lap.

He gasped as she responded, telling himself this was not the way it should happen. Much as he wanted to flick away the thin cotton panties that stood between his jeans and her core, he was aware enough to know this was not the place.

Bella bit down on his earlobe and his head spun.

Jake walked off in disgust and Bella giggled and ground herself harder. Jake considered himself 'well hung' but from what she was feeling between her thighs, against her damp and eager core, Edward had even more to offer.

She slid a hand between them and unzipped his pants. She knew it may be wrong to be doing this with the state he was in but the temptation was too great and he was sure to consider this handjob very smallfry to what he usually did with his women. She really did not think he was going to mind, or even remember. He was aware enough to grab her hand to stop her or to say no if he wanted to.

Edward grunted and felt her hands work him, thrusting his hips into her hand.

Bella glanced around quickly and nervously, nobody was taking the slightest interest in them and their activities. The lights above the booths dimmed further and she grinned.

Wow, just wow. She ran her fingers lightly over the tip and smiled as he reacted.

"God, yes, Bella, keep doing that, don't stop," he pleaded, and she grasped the shaft harder and stroked until he lay his own head back against the seat. She covered him with a paper table napkin and felt him come with her strokes.

Edward kissed her hard, his hands in her hair, pulling her face closer, and she discretely cleaned him off and got him back inside his jeans and closed the zip with great difficulty, talk about quick recovery time! He was instantly hard as a rock again, and she licked her lips at what future pleasures this could mean. Edward sunk lower in the seat and his head rolled to one side. He was tanked, that was obvious. She probably should not have been touching him in this condition, she hoped he wouldn't regret it in the morning.

Jake was suddenly back beside them

"You might want to end the little porn show, his family have come to take Eddie boy home to his Mommy," he smirked.

Carlisle appeared at the door with Alice and Bella slipped off Edward's lap and adjusted her skirt, then stood to greet them. Alice was smiling wickedly, and winked at Bella with a grin.

Bella blushed and faced Dr Carlisle.

"I truly don't know what happened. He was fine then he went to the men's room and then he came back like this. I think he has been drugged."

"Alice will drive you home in Edward's car then drive it back to his house. I will take him with me. He usually never drinks, maybe it is just an allergic reaction," Carlisle suggested, putting an arm around Edward and walking him to the door.

Bella and Alice walked behind and Alice assured Bella her brother was not a drunk, he usually avoided alcohol completely, in fact.

"I should never have agreed to coming here, I thought one drink would not hurt," Bella cried.

"Edward has a lot of allergies and intolerances, many foods make him ill, so he is usually on a special diet. I suspect the combination of food he usually doesn't eat and the alcohol have affected his body in some over reactive way. Dad will take care of him, let's get you home," Alice said brightly.

Images to come of Edward as the night progressed had her amused. He was trying to dance with Emmett and was singing loudly but very off key, stumbling and cursing. She was going to videotape this, he would die of embarrassment and she would copy the images to dvd and hide them all over the house so he could not find and destroy them all. Her brain was thinking of ways to do that, knowing his superior sense of smell would lead him to the hiding places when it hit her...the internet. She could upload the tape there!

"So, you like Edward?" Alice asked as she started the engine of the silver Volvo.

"He seems different away from the office. More fun," Bella admitted. She was fairly sure Alice knew exactly what she had done to him under the table.

"He likes you, you are his favorite topic of conversation, in fact," Alice laughed. She liked the human, and could see them becoming friends, especially if she did some further 'work' with Edward and changed his virgin status for them.

It would make life so much easier all round. The image in the meadow flashed inside her mind again. Nothing had changed, it seemed this night was just the beginning of the path these two had chosen to walk down.

"He is a really nice guy but lonely, you know? Most girls don't get him, he has so little experience mixing with people. On a personal level, I mean."

"He must have had girlfriends, he is so beautiful to look at apart from anything else," Bella commented. She hoped his number was not too high, guys who had been with many girls turned her right off, how 'special' could you be if they had been with fifty other girls?

Edward had the looks that would allow his number to be many times that total and she baulked at the idea of being Girl Number 496 or whatever, if he was keeping score.

She had very little experience as in none.

Jake would love to change that but Bella was keeping her options open and not settling down with the first guy she had ever seriously dated. They did 'stuff' together but she had her limits and he had never managed to convince her to allow him to cross that line and be her first.

Jake had been with a few girls and he knew Bella resented that. He was an idiot, why he had even told her about the others was a mystery to him now.

Working his way thought the girls on the Res was more a rite of passage, all the boys did it, but when she found out his number was 63, she had changed towards him, making him fairly sure she would never be #64.

After tonight he probably should give up on her and move on. Charlie would be disappointed but his own father, Billy, had warned him from the start Bella Swan was not the one for him, he had seen it in the stars or the embers of the bonfire or some shit. The Elders and their ancient beliefs were embarrassing, none of the younger generation listened or believed any part of the stupid, tired old tales the men tried to force them to listen to, and hear. Billy was forever saying Jake did not hear what he said. Not really. There was a difference between listening and 'hearing' according to has father.

Leah Clearwater was standing at the bar and she smiled as Jake ordered another beer.

"So, Jake, out on the pull? I'm game if you are," she laughed.

Jake considered, she had been his first but that didn't mean she couldn't be Number 64 as well. There were no rules against double dipping.

xxx xxx

Alice sat in the car and reached to take Bella's hand.

"You are good for him, know that. The family are all so excited, Edward has never had a girlfriend before. We can't wait until he brings you home and introduces you to Esme, once you officially meet her, the writing will be on the wall, Bella. You will be one of us, I know it."

"One of you? A Cullen? I thought you were fostered?"

"We are family, Bella, believe me, more so than those born of the same blood. And you will be one of us. I don't see any alternative now."

She smiled and patted the girls hand.

Bella frowned. Alice's hands were as cold as Edwards.

But they were not related.

Something strange was going on here. She would work it out. Maybe they all gravitated together like other groups of people did when sharing a health issue.

Maybe they were like a support group, there for one another.

She thanked Alice for the lift and asked her to make sure her brother was okay.

"See you tomorrow, at Emmett's new company on level three," Alice chirped.

Bella thought back, how did the pixie like girl even know Edward had suggested that happen?

Clearly they were a close family, they must have discussed it and decided it before she had even gone out with him tonight.

xxx xxx

Esme was shocked at the sight of her son as he staggered into the sitting room, almost falling. Vampires were never like this, the only time they lost control of their bodies was during a frantic feeding session with a particularly tasty human.

She sighed, this day with Bella Swan in the meadow had to happen soon.

"What on earth?" she asked Carlisle as he tried to push Edward towards a couch.

"Edward has been drinking from humans that have been drinking. His body can't process the alcohol but it will evaporate in time, and he won't have any after effects. I didn't want to intervene, he was having quite some fun there at the bar, but Alice was getting flashes of him belligerently insisting he could drive home later and killing Bella Swan in a road accident. We couldn't have that happen," he stated.

Emmett appeared at the bottom of the staircase.

"What the fuck is going on? Is Eddie tanked? Fuck, I never thought I would see the day he pulled that stick out of his ass and had some fun."

Edward lolled his head back then snapped it up as he saw Emmett.

"Hey, wanna dance with me? Bella didn't dance with me but she did give me a wank under the table," he slurred.

Emmett grinned and grabbed his brother's hands.

"No pinching my ass or feeling me up, then, it's just a dance, right?" he growled and swayed in time with Edward's drunken movements.

Edward started to sing loudly and Emmett wished he could close his hearing off.

This was bad, he hated many of the human bands around these days with their screamo, but this was possibly worse.

Alice danced about lightly on her feet, filming her brothers from all angles as they danced together.

"I wanna fuck you like an animal," Edward wailed."I wanna feel you from the inside. You bring me closer to God."

"Yes, while I do agree some fucking needs to happen and soon, it won't be with me," Emmett told him.

Jasper flew to their sides.

"We need to dilute the alcohol, he is processing the blood too quickly. Let's go get Eddie some takeaway."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi, I have that really horrible flu and inner ear infections so I'm as dizzy as Drunkward on the dancefloor. All I've written is 4 more chapters of this story so that's all that will be updating this week until I recover, sorry to the readers whom I promised to update Remembering Me and Warm this week, it isn't going to happen. These new chapters are not edited for typos, sorry.**

The CEO

Chapter 6

Bella sat at the opposite side of the desk from Emmett McCarty and shivered slightly. Jess was right, he was both enormous and a little scary. The way he smiled widely and showed his canine teeth unnerved her a little.

"So, you are going to be my PA I believe," he said.

"Oh, no, I only just started working and I have only done gofer work, photocopying, that sort of thing."

"Then it's time we stretched you further. I like you, I have to say I am sick of looking at the 'before's' ; my workplace will only consist of the after's."

Bell frowned, this male prejudice was rampart in the Cullen family it seemed. She would be watching carefully.

Bella signed her new contract and asked what her duties were to be.

Rosalie Hale entered and glided to stand behind Emmett.

"You will work with Edward but officially you are Emmett's PA. I am Edward's PA and I in turn will work here with Emmett. It's the official titles that count, not what we actually do. This will prevent any workplace inappropriateness happening."

She bent and kissed Emmett and Bella smiled and blushed. They did seem like an ideal match and she would much rather work along side Edward, in truth.

Emmett looked like he could take down a grizzly bear with one hand.

His outer offices were filling up as the skinny girls moved in, and Bella escaped gratefully back to her former work area.

Jess was sitting at her desk, frowning.

"What's up, you look concerned," Bella asked.

"You have been here like 5 minutes and you are a PA already? I have been here a whole year, it just doesn't seem fair," Jess replied.

"I can't explain it, but it had better not be a promotion for personal reasons," Bella growled. She would be working as a Personal Assistant, not a Play Article. Edward had better realize that and treat her with respect and appropriateness from the start.

"Well, help me move my stuff, you have this office now, I am off to Emmett's lair. God, I am glad I won't be looking at Emmett the way I know I do at Edward, Rose would snap my neck if she thought I fancied him."

Bella helped her pack her belongings and take them down to the third level. Jess's office was bigger and airier than her old one, with a better view. This cheered her up somewhat and when Emmett welcomed her and introduced her to her very own assistant, she was suddenly mollified at the changes.

And she had her own coffee machine in her office. She could have an espresso or cappuccino whenever she wanted.

"Just don't be getting chubby again or it will be back to Edward's staff for you," Emmett said jokingly, Bella hoped.

She skipped back to her own office, and noticed Edward's door was closed.

Good, he was going to act properly, it wouldn't be a problem.

She checked the files and wondered what exactly this company made or offered, nobody had informed her of anything, she had just done the donkey work until now.

There was a brochure about Emmett's new business, manufacturing a newly invented thin and lightweight bedroll that was as warm as it's much thicker more padded contemporaries but could fold and fit in a person's bookbag it was so compact. This would make it easier for hikers and the idea was to charge twice the cost to ordinary folk and thus finance a second for a homeless person with each order.

There were other projects to follow but this would be the company's first production.

Industrial sewing machines were being delivered and installed downstairs and women who would train the girls had arrived already.

Bella kind of wished she was there, working in the busy hub of activity. She decided she had no choice, she had to knock on Edward's door and ask him what her duties were, she couldn't sit here gazing into space all day.

Her hand had just touched the doorknob when Alice appeared beside her and placed her own smaller hand over Bella's.

"Hi, I'm here to train you, first rule, never enter Edward's office when his door is closed. No matter who comes to see him, always use the intercom first and wait until he answers.

Nobody is permitted to go in that office unless he knows, and opens the door himself, and this includes you, Bella, okay?"

"Fine, intercom first, got it," she answered."What exactly do we do here, by the way? Are we manufacturing items like Emmett's company?"

"No, we work online on the stock market, I will explain. It takes a certain skill to read the market correctly, you will either have that automatic knowledge inside you or not. Never mind if you don't, I can run this section alone, with just the occasional tip from Edward."

"Then what do I actually do?" Bella asked.

"You are in charge of personnel. Edward likes to interview certain members of his staff throughout the day and get a feel for what career they would be suited for, he gets them employment outside the company once they have sli...learned enough."

"You were going to say slimmed down enough. What's the problem with larger figures? This company seems obsessed with figure types. I can't say I like it."

"Bella, it's not the company, it's society at large. Bosses prefer slimmer women, Edward helps these girls make better choices and slim down and the world is their oyster. Of course none of us like it but it's just the way it is. Think about the females that act these days, any chubbiness and they are lucky to get a single role. It's just life. Humans are superficial and shallow."

"So Edward is an advisor?" she queried.

"More or less. He just points out the obvious, a blob of cream and a spoonful of sugar in every coffee and you gain like pounds each year. It's the little changes that count. He motivates them to want to change."

Edward's office door opened and he stood there looking at the girls.

"May I be of assistance?" Bella asked, walking towards him.

"Yes, you can take Lizzie to the recovery room. I'm sure Alice explained I use a form of hypnotherapy with these girls and sometimes it takes a while to wear off. Help them into the sick bay and offer them orange juice, cookies, a sandwich, whatever they want."

"Kind of like what I used to do when I worked for the Red Cross Bloodbank on weekends, in Arizona," Bella answered.

"Exactly like that. This new hypnosis method affects the body in exactly the same way as a blood donation. We are working on fixing that but for now, treat these girls as blood donors," he smiled.

Bella and Alice assisted a groggy Lizzie to the sick room and Bella raised her eyebrows at the number of beds. In an office their size, surely a single or maybe two cots would suffice, this room held twenty beds.

"What on earth? Is this room ever full?" she asked Alice as they lay Lizzie in the recovery position on the bed. The girl opened her eyes and Alice slid a bendy straw between Lizzie's lips and encouraged her to sip.

"Somedays Edward gets a lot more interviews done, he has worked harder than ever since you started here," Alice answered, smirking.

It was hard for Edward to control any of his urges around Bella now, feeding pretty much constantly was the order of the day but it did mean the interns would be slim and healthy again by the time he managed to get into a proper relationship with Bella and was having sex daily.

His office now had two rooms off it, a fully furnished bedroom and adjoining bathroom.

Alice had decorated both during the night.

Purple was the theme, Edward had asked her to add pirates but she had laughed and assured him he was wrong, it was a Johnny Depp issue, not a pirate obsession.

Edward had accepted she would know better than him but the height thing seemed wrong in that case. Women could see past the 5'9" handicap and find the actor attractive then? Good for them.

He sniffed the air, she was coming back.

His pants tightened and he sighed. Hand relief or another feed? Which part of his body was screaming the loudest? Which need was greater? He wished he could fulfil both needs at once and the idea of having sex with his feeders crossed his mind.

"Edward, if you do that, there is no hope at all for you and Bella as a couple. She has kept Jacob Black on a friendship level solely because he fucked around with other women. If you want a real future with her, you have to have sex with her alone, it's her requirement, Edward. Make up your mind. Once you start having sex daily you won't need to feed from humans, so this fantasy with the feeders is short lived anyway."

"When will she let me have sex with her? Soon?" he asked his sister.

"I think she is as keen as you are, play your cards right, take her out every night and get Jake completely out of the picture, and it will happen faster."

"How do I eliminate Jake? Kill him?" he asked.

"No, that would be the opposite of smart. Bella has been his friend forever, she would go into mourning and forget about dating and sex for ages, maybe years, if that happened. Just be the ideal boyfriend, don't push her to be with you that way, wait for her to offer herself. She likes you already and she did give you a handjob on your first date, Edward."

"Leave now, my greatest need just showed itself, after recalling that incident," Edward warned and opened his fly.

Alice flew to the door faster than light, there were some sights she hoped to never witness.

She closed it firmly behind her and walked to Bella's desk where the girl was studying the share prices online, her brow furrowed.

Alice filled her own head with stocks and shares and made a solid effort to not "see' Edward at all at this moment in time.

Gold was down, it would rise again by afternoon, the profit margin was quite decent, worth a million or so.

"So, what are you feeling about Gold?" she asked Bella.

xxx xxx xxx

Alice smiled and waved as Bella gathered her belongings and left for the night. Alice just needed a few minutes to invest wisely and make up for the losses they had incurred at Bella's hand, her instincts were way off. Maybe in time she would pick up a feel for it. Once she was changed, no problem, she and Alice could reel in the millions.

Just now as a human, she had no idea what was about to happen with shares.

Edward appeared beside her and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I hope you washed those hands, you seemed to spend half the day wanking," Alice sighed.

"Put Bella in that close proximity, you are lucky I haven't deflowered every virgin in the building. When is it going to happen, Alice?"

Alice stared at the blank wall.

"Not tonight, sorry." Alice smiled enigmatically, nodding her approval at something that was to happen. " But she enjoyed her time at the bar last night, take her there again and Edward, only feed off the mildly intoxicated this time."

xxx xxx xxx

The bar was packed and the atmosphere was happy and energetic. Edward tried to relax but he needed a feed to get into the mood.

Bella lit a cigarette and inhaled, then blew the smoke across his face, smiling. Edward lit himself one too and dragged in the carcinogenic that could do no damage to him. He liked smoking, he liked how he looked with a cigarette hanging from his lips. He watched them in the mirrored surface of the walls and let his eye lids half droop, he was looking sexy with this beautiful girl on his arm.

"Want to dance first?" Bella asked, sitting close beside him. She had agreed immediately to the date, and smiled warmly at him when he caught her up in the staff carpark.

"Oh, this job as PA comes with a car, I will pick you up in the morning and your new car will be waiting in the carpark by end of business tomorrow," he had promised her.

Esme was on it, out car searching, they needed something strong and heavy and safe so no harm could come to the girl before he changed her.

Edward found himself in a dilemma, he had always intended making Bella his mate but now he started to wonder if she should be allowed to make that decision for herself. He had to somehow let her know what it was she was choosing, if she slept with him and they became a full and proper pairing.

It was possible for vampires to have sex with other vampires and not be mated but that seemed kind of empty and lonely to him, he wanted what his siblings and so called parents had. He wanted it all, the feelings, the connection, the need for one another. The feelings were already changing him and making him long to own her completely, the lust was being eclipsed by something deeper and far more permanent.

He was there, she was not.

Not yet.

It was his job to get her to the point where she would rather die than be parted from him.

Dazzling was out, she was completely immune but in a way, Edward liked that. If Bella chose him, she would be choosing with her own free will and that would be a lot more satisfying than putting the images in her head and forcing her to act upon them.

"I'm just going to use the Men's room," he said, handing her a $20 note so she could buy them a drink while he was gone. He could smell the girls from this years intake down the hallway.

He walked slowly past them and smiled at one he had yet to feed from and she blindly followed him out the alley door.

Edward sniffed her and found whatever she was drinking quite acceptable, fruity, and not too alcoholic, and he took her in his arms and leaned in for the spot on her neck where he could easily access her. She leaned her head away to give him room and he drank thirstily.

"Emma, what the fuck?" an angry voice screeched.

Edward sighed, he hated it when this happened. Emma's date was also an employee but Edward preferred the males to be bled into wine bottles and the 'wine' stored at home in his bedroom, he didn't like drinking directly from males.

Some sort of homophobic thing, no doubt. Men just didn't feel good in his arms and he hated their scratchy two day growths and their smell. Give him girls any day.

He turned and let the girl drift to the ground.

"Oh, Mr Cullen. I'm dating Emma, is she okay?" the boy asked.

"It's a beautiful night, the stars look close enough to touch," Edward answered. The boy gazed at him then at the sky and stood frozen as Edward quickly drained a feed from his throat. He spat out the few strands from the boys whiskers and went back to the girl, so much nicer.

When he was done, he entwined them together on the ground and as an afterthought, pulled down the boys trousers and the girls panties, and smirked as he walked away. It would be interesting to see what Emma thought when she woke up half naked in an alley, with her date's body wrapped around her. It would go either really well for the boy.

Or really badly.

Edward laughed and returned to Bella and the booth.

He felt better, more relaxed. He lit another cigarette and put his arm around his date and kissed her neck gently, feeling the pulse in her throat.

God, she smelled delicious.

He wondered if she would permit him a taste before the changing, when he would get to consume half her volume of blood. He was looking forward to that almost as much as the sex.

He cursed silently, just the word made him hard and he knew Bella was aware of the state of his erection.

She smiled and lay back against his side and stroked her hand above the fabric of his jeans as he relaxed and felt the liquor start to affect him. Suddenly he was understanding humans more. Dancing, drinking, smoking, it was all good. He liked this new lifestyle. He could relate now to why men went to bars and if they got sex as well at the end of the night, well good for them.

The lights dimmed over the booths and brightened on the dancefloor. He must remember to always get here at this time, he liked the dark and it had no effect on his eyesight, but it did on the humans.

The girls stopped looking at him and concentrated on the boys they were with, and more importantly, Bella was easing his fly open.

xxx xxx

Edward took her hand and dragged her on to the dancefloor, now she had relieved his tension, he needed time to think. Alice had instructed him for hours and explained if he was getting relief from Bella, he should offer her the same, and it would hurry along the full sex thing.

He was unsure about touching her here, in public. Most of the girls were helping out their men with hands and even mouths under the cover of the red and white gingham tablecloths, but few men were touching girls in any sexual way.

Many couples stood and left hurriedly during the evening and he could hear activities outside in cars, and in the alley.

That was not what he wanted for Bella.

He wanted her to be comfortable and relaxed and be unselfconscious when he touched her, not looking around to see who was watching. The wolf boy was there in the darkness, across the room, with a Quileute girl, he seemed to have no qualms about Bella seeing him there with her.

Maybe things had changed between him and this beautiful girl in Edward's arms, swaying to the music, touching bodies as closely as was decent on the dance floor.

Edward scanned the boys mind. Jake was not even thinking of Bella at all, he was congratulating himself on finding 'a right little goer' and wondering why he had not used Leah's body for relief all along. It would have kept his number at a respectable one and maybe then Bella...ah, he was thinking of her.

Edward smirked. Jake could not unring those bells and thus Bella could never accept him in the way he wanted her to. Alice had been right, Bella was somewhat old fashioned compared to most of the minds Edward glimpsed into. She was waiting for feelings and connection before participating in sex.

He liked that, he felt the same way himself now he had processed Alice's words about fucking the feeders. It would be meaningless to him, merely relief, but to Bella it would be betrayal.

He was slowly learning to be the man she needed and funnily enough, he was now willing to change and adapt and become that man, not fake anything at all.

Bella suggested they go back to her room as Charlie was working a night shift so Edward agreed and walked her to the car, opening her door for her.

This was just common courtesy when he was young, looking after your woman, but she still seemed surprised when he did it. She liked it, her face revealed that plainly, but she didn't expect it. Men were so stupid, just a few gestures of caring could change the whole demeanor of a woman, so easily.

No wonder they never got the amount of sex they wanted, they were too lazy to work for it.

Bella unlocked the door and led Edward upstairs into the familiar purple clad bedroom, and sat on the edge of the bed.

Edward walked to the desk and picked up the photo that bothered him.

"That's Emily and Sam, friends of mine," Bella said. "She was attacked by a bear but Sam saved her, luckily. They are so in love it hurts to be in the same room as them."

Edward nodded. So she knew nothing of the shapeshifters.

"I thought we could just kiss and stuff," she said nervously.

"Bella, I would never ask you to do anything you are not ready to do," he assured her.

She had changed him, matured his emotional level, already. He felt more like a man and less like a vampire in her presence. More like a lover and less like some bumbling fool adolescent.

Edward sat beside her and kissed her gently and she lay down, taking him with her.

"May I touch you, Bella?" he asked, his hand resting on the waistband of her skirt.

She bit her lip and nodded, blushing.

Edward placed his hand on her thigh and slowly brushed it up and down , higher under her skirt each sweep. She relaxed in his arms and opened her legs slightly and he paused when his hands met damp and needy flesh, not panties.

She did want this, he was assured. He wondered when those offending cotton and lace knickers had been removed then forgot as his fingers felt her wetness.

"Bella," he said, nuzzling her neck. "I have never touched a girl before, you need to show me what you like, and want me to do."

He feared instant rejection from his admission but instead she seemed to get wetter and she took his hand in hers and rested his fingers on what he knew from Alice's picture book of porn, was her clit.

He stroked it tenderly, not wanting to cause her any harm.

She sighed and sucked on his neck and he became lost in the moment, his fingers caressing her, moving to feel inside her most private area, sliding it in and out as the book had shown.

He wasn't sure whether she would prefer a second finger inside as well, so he raised his face a little and watched her eyes as he inserted the two digits together, checking for any signs of pain or discomfort.

Bella smiled and raised her pelvis and he stroked her until she shuddered and dampened his fingers with her ambrosia. He let her ride out her orgasm, and kissed her mouth gently.

The feelings in his heart were overwhelming, he felt so protective of her suddenly he wondered how he would bear to leave her.

"You can, you know. I haven't ever done it with anyone else, gone all the way. I'm a virgin," she said. "You can be my first, Edward. I would love that."

Edward stilled.

Was she offering herself to him completely, already, now?

That was the whole goal yet somehow it was no longer what he wanted tonight.

"We should wait, get to know one another better. I really like you, Bella. Sex is not all I want from you, I would rather wait until we feel the time is right."

She smiled and he kissed her gently and stroked her arm.

Edward pulled her so her back was flush against his chest and he could curl around her small body and keep her safe.

Her breathing changed as she fell asleep in his arms, and he kissed the top of her head.

Something momentous had happened.

'Love' whispered a voice in his head and he smiled.

"Yes, love," he said quietly.

This was the actual ultimate goal after all.


	7. Chapter 7

The CEO

Chapter 7

Bella awoke and frowned, this felt different to usual and she turned and smiled as she saw Edward was still here with her.

"You stayed," she said happily.

"I listened for the cruiser but Charlie didn't return," Edward assured her. He would never put her in an embarrassing situation, especially with her father.

"No, he doesn't get back until after ten if he works nights," she told him, rolling closer so she could touch his bare chest.

"Did you lose your shirt?" she laughed. "Must have been my lame efforts on the stock market, sorry about that. I don't seem to have that knack like Alice does of knowing when and what to buy and sell."

"That's fine, there are plenty of other things you can do. I mainly need you to look after my fe...males, females, girls can be quite delicate and need care," he told her.

"Edward you were being honest about never having had sex, weren't you?" she asked quietly. It would hardly be the first time a man tried that line on a girl but the fact he had not taken her up on her offer made her feel he was genuine, and did want something more.

"I have never kissed a girl even before you," he replied.

"Why not? That seems so insane. You went to Forks High School, there must have been girls everywhere wishing you would do more than just kiss them. That place is a smorgasbord of willing partners."

"I can only say before you, none of them, none of the females I met, ever appealed to me. I didn't want hook ups, I wanted a relationship. I stll do. Am I seeing more to this, between us, than you are? I really think we could be something real and wonderful and special. I want it all now."

"I think we are on the same page," Bella replied. It was hard to believe he, who could have chosen anyone, had chosen her.

"I admit my initial reaction when I met you was all about sex and lust and desire but things are changing. It's becoming more about just being with you, holding you. I enjoyed last night like no other night ever."

"I did, too," she blushed.

"Don't be embarrassed, I love that I can make your body sing like you make mine. We seem to fit together like pieces of a puzzle. In time, we will find out for sure but I think anticipating that happening will be half the thrill. I want you, don't doubt that, I want to be inside you and have you around my body and I want to know your body as well as I know my own. And believe me, I know my own very well these past few days, with you making me want things I never gave much thought to before."

"Me too, I never imagined in a million years I would offer myself to a man I barely knew, I always had the idea I was saving myself for marriage until you touched me. Thanks for not..."

"I surprised myself. I thought that was what I wanted but somehow it's just not enough. I want to make love to you, not have sex. I want us to be so madly, completely, eternally in love when that happens that it is necessary, not just a want or need, it will be the peak of our existence when we finally join in that way."

"Wow," Bella replied.

"Yes, wow. It will be wow, I can assure you. I must as Alice to give me a preview," he said unthinkingly.

"Alice, what, sees the future?" she asked tentatively.

"Oh, yes, I should have warned you. Alice sees the future but it can change. It depends on the reasons there are for something to happen, if those reasons change or end, then what she has seen can change, or never happen at all."

"What has she seen for us?" she asked.

"She sees us together, properly. Hopefully forever, that's what I want, Bella."

"I do too, Edward," she admitted.

Her heartbeat fastened as she looked at him and watched his green eyes and beautiful lips and she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair.

"God, you are beautiful," Edward stated, kissing her cheek.

"Did you just read my mind, because I was thinking that exact thought about you," Bella answered.

"Bella, I can read minds. I can read any mind of anyone I choose to, except yours."

Bella grinned.

"Really, Edward? What are you Cullens', some kind of circus act?"

"Maybe," he smiled and touched her cheek with his hand.

"Can anyone else do anything?" she asked.

"Jasper can usually, usually, influence people to think or feel what he wants them to. Not you, you defy even him."

"So, what was with the staring shit he was doing to me?"

"He was trying to make you want to work in his office with him, to keep you away from me. I can be dangerous. I'm sorry, and I'm also sorry I can't explain it all to you, but that would put you in danger. I could kill you, Bella, just like that, like swatting a bug, or by accident. I don't want to, believe me, I want to keep you, but you need to have the choice of whether you want to just walk away from me, now. Before things get serious between us."

"I think it's too late for that," Bella replied.

"I would never forgive myself if I hurt you, Bella."

"People get hurt, look at Emily. She got hurt, she survived, and Sam loves her more than ever with her scars even."

"I love you like that," he sighed. "I would love you no matter what happened."

"Edward, you just said you loved me," Bella said, surprised, her heart thumping wildly.

"That would be because I do love you, why hide it?" he replied. "You don't have to say it back, I would rather you waited until you were sure it was true."

"Fine. I love you, Edward," she answered. "I waited until I was sure."

Edward leaned in and caught her lips with his own and kissed her more deeply than he had before. She tasted like she smelled, delicious and his body lit up in every cell, begging him to take her one way or the other, or both, both would be good. Suck her dry and impale her, the voice said, greedily.

Edward pulled back and lay flat on the bed and sighed.

"You don't have any idea what I am battling with. Think of it as a disease, I want to consume you, yet I want you to be mine forever. My body craves you in many ways, my mind tries to encourage it to take you, but my heart is your bodyguard and it won't let me act on my instincts."

"So, you want me?" Bella said.

"I want you in more ways than even Jacob Black wants you," he answered.

Bella laughed.

"Jake's explained the many ways he would like to take me, I didn't even realize there was another way more than those."

"There is. Sadly it's a bad way but so good my mind longs for it to happen."

"Can anything help?" she asked. "I can see you are scared of hurting me, what can I do to make things easier for you?"

"Nothing, it's my battle. I will win because if I lose, we both lose, and that can't happen."

"There must be something," Bella replied.

"It will get easier, once we make love, I will be able to control everything."

"Then let's just do it," she said.

"No, not yet. So impatient. Soon, I promise you, very soon."

"Darn," she said, snuggling in closer to him.

Edward felt himself harden and Bella was immediately pulling at his boxers, putting her hand inside and rubbing, stroking, pulling him over the edge. He shuddered as he came and she smiled.

"Okay, if that's what we are playing.." he replied, seeking her folds with his fingers, smiling at her as her legs fell apart instantly.

He could take her, there was no doubt in his mind. She would give herself to him whenever he decided to accept her gift.

He stroked her with his fingers, then wriggled up a little and stroked her folds with his erection instead. It was as eager as ever and the relief she had brought it didn't count now it was back. Bella moaned and ground herself against him. He had to be in charge, she would have him inside her if she could and that couldn't happen, they had to be in his meadow for that.

He caressed her back and forth and his tip wept tears of pre cum as he stroked her clit,then to her core, and back, over and over. He made sure he didn't lose control for a single second and he held back from coming until she did, then he let himself pump out onto her mattress behind her backside as he lay pushed up flush to her sex with his shaft.

Bella suggested they shower together and Edward wanted to, so he agreed. He still showered every day even though he rarely needed to, but it was a human custom and he liked to pretend he was human. This was the first time he had shared a shower and it was a lot more fun. When Bella sank to her knees he was confused, then when she placed her lips around his shaft he moaned.

Inside his head a voice warned him to pull out and put a stop to this ungentlemanly behaviour but he could no more stop her doing this than become human.

He gasped and watched, feeling her scrape him gently with her teeth, knowing even if she bit she could not harm him, he was only scared he may start pumping out of control down her throat and choke her.

He kept half his shaft from entering her mouth and she grasped it with her fist and pumped and he was done, spurting down her throat, before it even occurred to him that could be harmful to her.

Who knew what his ejaculate consisted of now? Venom?

He panicked a little and tried to appear calm.

"Don't swallow, spit it out," he begged and she did. He handed her the glass off the sink and filled it with shower water and she rinsed her mouth out and spat into the drain at their feet.

"That was probably very dangerous, I should check with Carlisle."

"Why? Plenty of girls swallow, it doesn't hurt them."

"My...medications..they are pretty toxic, I need to tell Carlisle what we did, I'm sorry."

He stroked her face and reached for his cellphone.

His father was perplexed and had no idea, but he assured Edward she would not be changed by any venom if she had swallowed some. It would be broken down to protein in her digestive system, it needed to be injected straight into her bloodstream to work.

He suggested they analyze Edward's ejaculate before he allowed that to happen again.

"I should go, we have to be at work soon, I will be back to pick you up in an hour," he promised, and kissed her to reassure her he was not doing a wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

"I love you, Bella, remember that above all else. I would never hurt you, I promise."

xxx xxx

Edward unlocked his office door and turned back to smile at Bella as she sat at her desk.

"Who shall you be hypnotizing first today? " she asked.

"Counselling," he growled the correction out.

"Oops, sorry," she laughed and told herself to do better.

Edward had told her on the car trip in that Carlisle was convinced what she had done would not hurt her, saliva broke down the harmful part of his medications.

She knew he had circulatory issues and hoped their was nothing worse. She would ask if he didn't tell her himself soon.

Edward looked in the typing pool and selected the first girl for counselling, and she followed him in like some trained zombie.

Bella was waiting for Alice to show up and continue her training so she read the stock market and made theoretical purchases and sales and wrote them down to show Alice when she arrived.

xxx xxx

Edward handed the latest feeder over to Bella then returned to his office to make sure all was pristine. The girls were thinning down quickly, he had never consumed even a quarter of the blood he was drinking now with Bella so close. He was going to have to give in and make love to her soon. There were no more feeders being prepared for him, though he could always invite the Senior year girls to do internships here, they were the fattest students left now. Not premium fat but chubby enough. Of course they would all taste like grass now they were consuming salads.

He missed feeding from Jess, that girl had been so filled with delicious coffee flavored cream it had been a delight to suck her blood. It was almost the same as the coffee she was so addicted to. If she showed the slightest increase in weight again...

Bella was back and Edward held out a hand which she took.

"Come and visit with me, I have done six counselling sessions so I am ahead of schedule, we have a little time."

Bella sat where he indicated, in his own director's chair behind his desk.

"Sorry about scaring you this morning, I'm really stupid for letting you do that before I checked with Carlisle, I just never expected you to do that to me," he purred, nuzzling her neck. He crouched in front of the chair and raised her skirt up to her waist and gently tugged at her apricot lace panties by the crotch.

"Can I take these off you?" he murmured and she raised her bottom in response so he quickly slid them down and off her legs, putting them into his pocket.

They would be useful later.

He pulled her legs forward so her body slid down the chair until her head was resting against the top of the backrest, and he opened her knees and traced his hands up her inner thighs, right there in front of his face at mouth level. He smiled at her and she realized what he was about to do and she felt her sex glistened with wetness.

He licked along her folds then opened them with his fingers and licked straight against her clit, and to her core, pushing his tongue inside. She tasted as he had hoped, and he lapped at her then pulled out to work on her clit and encourage some more ambrosia to be released.

She shook and shivered and fought him a little but he licked her firmly then sucked in her bundle of nerves and traced his tongue over and over so she relented and came on his mouth. He had his tongue back instantly at her center as the sweetness was released.

God, this truly must be ambrosia, the food of the Gods.

His erection threatened to break his zip so he released it and moved his hand up and down his shaft while he licked and sucked on her sex.

He felt her pulse and pushed his tongue against the tidal wave so she had something to come against and he quickly brought her to the brink again then drew her over, releasing fluid himself as he came with her.

He felt like a God as she shuddered and moaned against his mouth, his lips catching the sweet bounty and his tongue licked her clean.

He had his own pants back in place, but his erection was hard again and he thirsted desperately for blood.

Alice must have known he would do this so she was staying away until he was finished.

Edward stood and lifted a boneless Bella onto his lap and sat on the chaise by the window and nursed her in his arms like a baby.

"I love you, my Bella, he murmured. She owned him, body and soul.

He kissed her for a while until he felt her body recover from the orgasms and then he let her return to work and he asked for two girls to come in together.

He had them dazzled and drank deeply of one then the other, without pausing.

"Jas, don't, not here, not in this cottage, he will know," Alice said, slapping his hand away. They were inspecting Edward's cottage at the back of the yard and finding it pleasing. No way was Alice going in to the office until she was sure he was done eating Bella. In a good way.

Esme had purchased all sorts of little things to decorate and some new furniture so it looked amazing now.

The king sized brass bed stood in the bedroom, ready made, waiting for some action, which Jasper was keen to provide.

"Edward would know and make us repaint the room and burn the mattress and buy a new bed, stop it," she yelled.

Jasper pulled her out of the window into the forest and threw her onto the ground, ripping every piece of her executive suit to shreds as he pushed inside her.

Alice gave up fighting and concentrating on pleasing herself and her mate.

Once Jasper paused, Alice flew from his embrace and rushed to the main house to change clothes, not that she was wearing any.

She drove quickly to work and turned into the carpark in a rush, on the wrong side of the road. The scream of brakes and the crunch of metal and glass filled the air.

Bella ran to her office window and looked outside.

"My God, Alice!" she screamed.

She bolted for her Boss's door and threw it open, and stopped in shock.

Edward was lying on top of Sylvia, the latest girl that had gone inside for counselling. He was kissing her neck and Bella turned and ran.

xxxx xx xxxx


	8. Chapter 8

The CEO

Chapter 8

Alice ran inside so fast nobody saw her and when the elevator opened and Bella rushed out, she caught her in her arms.

"Alice, how are you alive?" she screamed in shock.

"Someone stole my car and crashed it into the pole at the entry, I just came down to check whoever was driving it is okay. They must be, they ran," Alice answered.

Bella shook from head to foot and Alice frowned at the images in her head.

"What happened, Bella?" she asked the girl.

"Nothing, nothing, I just need to go home, I have a migraine," Bella pleaded.

She pushed against Alice's embrace and the girl released her, following her to the carpark.

Bella raced up one row and down the other, looking for her rusty red truck.

"Fuck no, I came in with him," she wailed.

"Bella, tell me what's wrong," Alice pleaded.

"I trusted him, I trusted he wasn't lying to me. I believed him when he said he hadn't been with other women," she cried in pain. "I sure know how to pick them, though at least Jacob was man enough to tell me upfront. Not like Edward. He did...that..to me..in his office, then he is screwing that girl...Oh My God, is he screwing ALL those girls? Is that why he has that enormous typing pool that nobody actually gets any typing done in? Does he have some fetish about chubby girls, Alice? Is that what I lack? Is that why he sleeps with them and not me?"

Alice grabbed her wrist and held her still.

"Edward has never, ever, ever had sex. Never. I would know. He told you I see things, I know that. He has never been sexually involved in any way with anyone but you, Bella. He loves you," she added, her voice soft and happy.

"No he doesn't! You didn't see what I saw! I opened his door without knocking when I thought you just got killed in a car crash and he was laying...on top of that girl, kissing her, Alice, that looks pretty much what sex looks like in the movies."

"Bella, believe me, you mistook what you saw. Have you heard of the condition porphyria? Edward suffers from an associated condition, he needs to consume blood to survive."

"What? He drinks...human...blood?" she whispered.

"He has to or he will die. Esme and Carlisle have paid for the food at Forks High ever since he was diagnosed and the students end up overweight and thus have more blood volume, so Edward drinks their blood, literally. He hypnotizes them, so they don't suffer at all, and they lose the weight in around a year of his feeding from them. Think about what you saw, was he kissing her neck, or sucking it? Was he clothed? Was she clothed?"

"They...they were both fully clothed," she admitted slowly, her eyes narrowed as she tried to see exactly the truth, not what her brain had presented as the most likely scenario.

"He could have been sucking on her neck, I guess."

"Come and talk to him. Did he explain he is ill, Bella? Has he told you the cure? The blood is just a way to control the symptoms, he will be partially cured once he becomes sexually active."

"He won't need to drink blood once he has sex?" Bella gaped.

"He will need blood still but he can exist on animal blood, like the rest of us. Bella, feel my skin, do I feel normal?" the pixie asked.

"No, but the whole family...oh, do you all have to drink..."

"Animal blood only. Edward is the worst affected because he has never had sex. You cannot tell anyone, Bella, we would be burned at the stake as witches in the past, nowadays we would be run out of town or locked up in an asylum. Carlisle worked out the 'cure' and it's working for all of us. It will work for Edward once he..."

"Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he just have sex with me when I offered? He could have saved all this from happening."

"He loves you, Bella. You are the first girl he ever wanted to have sex with but it has changed, now he wants to love you and have you love him. In sickness and in health. It would really be a case of loving him unconditionally, that's the type of love he needs, Bella. You can't be judging him for his actions when he is only trying to stay alive."

"Why was he laying on top of her?" Bella asked.

"He gets tired blood from tired girls. By the end of the day, the girls have slowed and tired, so he lays them down to drink from them. It's the end of the day now, he has drunk from the others standing up, usually he stands behind them or in front sometimes if he has to do it somewhere in public, like in the alley behind the bar..."

"He said he had drunk from many fine ladies or something that night at the bar."

"He meant it literally. He was never in the Men's Room, he was in the alley sating his thirst so he could party with you."

"Then answer this one basic question. Why has he never drunk from me?"

"Because you are too small, too skinny. It's not some sexist thing against girls, he has to have overweight feeders so he doesn't harm them, once they slim down they go to Emmett's or Jasper's pool and work at real jobs. Here at Edward's they are just sitting around gaining weight."

"Okay, fine, but it's still a horrible thing to do to those girls. Make him see we can end it now. Tell him he has to have sex with me and end this now before somebody dies. How does he know these girls don't have HIV or AIDS even or malaria or whatever else people have in their blood?"

"Like alcohol?" Alice said.

"Oh, he was drinking drunks at the club! That's why he was hammered. But the diseases, Alice."

"All staff are tested daily. It's done painlessly and they don't even know. I can't explain how, it's unethical at best, but necessary. Do you still like him, Bella?"

"I think so, it's a lot to take in. It's like some conspiracy theory thought up by a madman only it's really happening. Who would believe me if I told, anyway? They would lock me up."

Alice nodded.

"They would indeed."

Bella paled.

"Let me get you a cab and you go home and think about this because you know Edward, he will let you go without a fight if that's what you prefer. He knows the chances of any woman ever accepting him are slim, and he never put himself out there before. He won't try again if you leave him. He loves you enough to let you go, Bella."

"I need a few days, Alice. I need to think and decide if I am strong enough for all this."

"I understand, Edward understands. Call me when you make a decision."

A cab pulled up beside the girls and Bella climbed in.

"My purse, it's inside. I have no money."

Alice handed a fifty to the driver and waved as Bella and the cab left the carpark.

xxxx xx xxxx

"She won't be back, she could never love me enough to accept the fake truth let alone the real disgusting truth," Edward cried.

Jasper sat beside him and signalled the bar tender so at least they had cover.

Emmett and Rose were on the dancefloor, dancing, but watching their brother closely from that distance.

Jasper picked up the two beers and walked to a booth and Edward followed.

"I need a drink."

Jasper frowned and pushed a glass toward him.

"No, Jas, I need a feeder to drink from. I need to dazzle a girl from the office and take her into the alley and drink from her throat."

"Come on, I'll get you one," Jas offered and smiled at a girl he recognised from Edward's pool.

"Hi Mr Whitlock, Mr Cullen," she said brightly.

"Are you having a nice time?" Jasper asked, trying to assess from her breath how much she had drunk.

"Sure."

Jasper looked deeply into her eyes.

"We are going out to the alley to look at the stars."

The men walked away to the door and she followed, her face blank.

Edward grabbed her and quickly sunk his teeth into her throat and drank deeply.

"Enough, stop, Edward, you are killing her," Jasper warned.

Edward stopped and licked her neck wounds closed and Emmett and Rose came out with two giggling girls who stopped and bent their heads to the side.

"I did it, I dazzled them," Rose said proudly.

"Cheers," said Edward, drinking quickly and stopping himself without anyone having to warn him now.

"Okay?" Jas asked and he nodded.

"Come on, let's have us some fun," Emmett cheered and they returned to their booth.

Emmett called for a pitcher of beer and four glasses, and poured everyone a drink.

"Emmett, what the fuck, we can't drink," Jasper hissed.

"Try it, you might like it. Rosie was quite the party girl before she changed and she has never given up her bad habits, she drinks and smokes. It has no effect, it just evaporates when you drink it yourself and don't get tanked via drunk blood."

"Do you have to...you know, like with food?'

"Nope, not if you stick to liquids, don't eat the lemon slices or consume anything with fruit pulp and you will be right."

Edward sipped on the beer and frowned.

"It tastes a lot better wrapped in blood," he complained.

Rose took turns dancing with Emmett and Jasper and Edward sat and sulked and thought about how close he had come to success.

He had managed to fall in love, and Bella appeared to have as well but where was she if she really truly loved him?

Emmett went to get a refill of the jug and Edward noticed a group of work girls off their faces and slipped away, luring all six out into the alley and feeding hungrily from them. He wanted to be drunk again, being intoxicated had felt new and different and had been a buzz.

No hangover, but the boys had been forced to bring home some sober girls for him to drink when his body processed the blood before the alcohol dispersed.

He lay the sixth girl down and regretted that he hadn't tried to kiss her, she had been keen to kiss him even with the dazzle immobilizing her.

If Bella decided he was too much hard work, he decided he would start 'dating' random women and fuck them all. Why not, his life would be empty if she left him, what else would he have to live for? Some empty fucking might give him a few seconds of feeling alive.

He returned inside and sat at the booth and felt the buzz begin.

Before long he was laughing hysterically and falling about and the bouncers had asked Jas to take him home.

Edward lay flat on the backseat of Jas's car and stared at the stars. His head swam and his eyes blurred and his belly sloshed unpleasantly but it was worth it. He could lie in a befuddled state for a few hours and pretend he was sleeping. He missed sleeping most of all of everything he was now deprived of.

To sleep, perchance to dream.

It was a cruel life where one could not even dream and have that alternate universe treat you better than the real thing.

Emmett and Rose arrived home soon after and all four lay in the sitting room while Edward sang quietly, for a change. He didn't feel like being happy tonight, tonight was about loss and fear and pain and coming so close you could taste it and then having it snatched away again.

His phone buzzed.

He dropped it trying to pull it from his pocket and Jas picked it up.

"Oh Edward, she still loves you. She wants you to go sleep in her beddy bye," Emmett read.

"Shit, we need to sober him up then," Jas said, and he and Emmett headed for the jeep and rounded up the usual well behaved chubby girls that stayed home in the evenings and didn't imbibe at all.

Clean fresh untainted blood was what he needed.

Michelle was available so Jas dazzled her quickly and drove on to Mary's house. He was shocked at her size, Edward was reducing these girls way too fast, at this rate he would have nobody left shortly.

He rejected Mary for her own good and went on to Patti's but she was out at a church meeting. Emmett left to scout on foot at the local diner and returned victorious.

"One more should do him," Jasper predicted.

"Tanya's pretty strong, he could have a single feed from her, she has been hitting the steak and chicken houses this week and was whinging about putting a couple of pounds back on," Emmett suggested.

Jasper drove straight to the Denali house.

Emmett looked inside the window at Tanya Denali and tapped on the glass. The girl walked over and smiled as she opened it.

"Want to come to a party?" he asked. He and Jasper had five other willing girls now but Emmett had a feeling this girl liked Edward and if Bella Swan didn't do him soon, Tanya would do as a substitute.

He helped her from her window and drove her and the others to the house.

Jas spoke to each girl as they alighted from the cars and got them dazzled so they meekly lined up and allowed the bronze haired brother to suck deeply from their throats.

Edward staggered a little between the second to last girl and Tanya and he sliced the last girls neck far wider than necessary.

"Fuck me, we are going to lose her, unless we change her," Jasper yelled in horror as Edward kept trying to drink the massive stream of blood pouring from her mangled throat.

"Grab him, Emmett. Jasper, Esme, help me change her," Carlisle ordered and all three started quickly biting the girl on her wrists and ankles, arms and legs, and Carlisle listened and hoped they had been in time.

The venom was tearing through her body, and it hit her heart and slowed the blood flow right down.

"Thank God, get her to a guestroom and someone will have to sit with her for the next three days," he ordered.

"What's going to happen, Carlisle?" asked Alice in horror, appearing back from Bella's house in an instant. She had calmed the girl and was pretty sure Bella was willing to do anything for Edward, including sleeping with him this very night

"Tanya isn't going to be Edward's mate, right? He has chosen Bella Swan for that. We can't make him take on Tanya, surely."

"I don't know, what else can we do with her?" Carlisle muttered. This had not gone down like they had imagined and Alice had had no warning.

"If she goes to the Volturi over this, we are all gone. Maybe, just maybe, Edward should think it through and choose Tanya. She will already be changed so he doesn't have to go through any angst over ending Bella's human life. They haven't been together long, they can both move on, surely," Rose added.

Edward swayed and wondered what they were talking about.

Changing a girl? A human.

For him?

He walked upstairs and lay on his bed and fantasized about how good his life would be now they were changing Bella for him. This was the best night ever.

xxx x xxx

Edward stumbled from the almost sleeplike daze he had been in all night and snapped to full consciousness. He sniffed the air and walked to the guestroom where his mother sat, and he looked with a frown at the girl writhing through the change, on the bed.

Not Bella Swan then. Why were they doing this?

"You hurt Tanya last night, Edward, you need to become her mate and take her for eternity at your side. What else can we do?" Esme wailed in despair.

Edward stepped away and headed downstairs where the rest of the family were gathered.

"He didn't actually have sex with Bella Swan so it doesn't even matter, Tanya is nicer anyway," Rose said loudly.

"What else could we do with her, we don't have any other unattached males. We can't have changed her then expect her to be happy to be alone forever. Edward will just have to step up and accept her," Emmett added.

"No," wailed Alice.

"Alice is right, this won't be happening. I have chosen my mate and I will change her as soon as she agrees," Edward said.

"Edward, we can't have Tanya going to the Volturi over this. Just accept this is the way things have to be. Tanya is quite nice and she adores you already, she will be a good mate," Carlisle sighed.

Alice wailed again.

"I'm still seeing Edward in the meadow, with Bella, he can't mate with her now."

Edward vanished in that moment and all the family paused.

He was faster than any of them, he would grab Bella and take her to this place, wherever it may be, they had no idea where it was.

"Follow him Jasper and Emmett. It's probably pointless but we have to try and stop him." Carlisle ordered, sinking to sit on a chair.

This would not end well.

xxx xxx

Bella opened her eyes as the dream she was flying seemed too real and she gasped and clung to the man carrying her in his arms, bridal style. Green was flashing by making her dizzy and so she shut her eyes and told herself to wake up NOW.

It didn't happen but suddenly she was laying on soft green grass and surrounded by wildflowers.

Edward stood over here, his face troubled.

Bella reached up a hand and realised she was naked.

Was this a naked dream mixed with a flying dream or how had she gotten here?

"Edward?" she questioned and he lay down beside her.

"There's so much I want to tell you but I can't. Please just lay here with me, my life is going to change in a day or two and I won't be able to see you again. Just let me have this one day, Bella, please."

"What's happened, Edward?" she asked. He looked so heartbroken she felt her own eyes well with tears.

"My family needs me to marry Tanya Denali. It's like an honor situation, we will be a bad trouble if I don't agree. Murderous Italian relatives and such. I don't even like her, Bella, I had hoped in time, you and I may choose to be together for life."

Bella held on to him and kissed his cheek.

"Is there really no way out of this?" she asked sadly, sad for him, sad for her, sad for what might have been.

"I could kill her, that's the only alternative," Edward suggested. He would do it if it meant he could take Bella instead.

"Edward,no," she cried out, shocked.

"I didn't mean that," he lied. He should have just done it and lived with the consequences. He was stronger than Esme, he could have tossed her aside and ripped out the girl's heart and stopped the change completing. Why hadn't he done that? He didn't want to be a monster but there were times when a single death seemed like a better solution to what would otherwise occur.

He had killed before, he had ended human lives when he read the minds of the murderers and rapists and child killers in the past, it had seemed like the right thing to do. Moving to Forks was the end of those activities, he had sworn to only drink from the students and restrain from any further killings and Tanya had done nothing to earn such a cruel ending anyway.

"We have this one day, I need to be with you," he cried and wrapped Bella inside his arms.

"You can't cheat on Tanya if you have promised to marry her, Edward, that would be cruel."

"Tanya doesn't even know we have to marry yet, she is...indisposed at present, once she recovers in a day or two she will be told and I will have to be there for her. I'm so sorry Bella. If you want me to take you home, just say the word, I will take you," he swore.

Bella stroked his face, across his brow, down his cheek, across his lips.

"Okay, if this is all we can have, let's have it. Let's pretend it's me you have to marry and practice for the honeymoon," she decided out loud.

"That's too painful to even pretend," he replied, and hovered above her, naked, his clothes gone the same way her nightdress had. Small shreds of fabric littered the meadow, blowing in the gentle breeze.

Bella opened her legs and Edward settled between them, his erection pushing against her core.

"I wanted to do this so differently, after our third date. I wanted to get to know you more, although I feel like I have known you forever already. I knew you needed time to get to know me, the real me, and decide whether you could love me enough to do what it took to stay with me. I wanted that so much, Bella."

He leaned down and caught her lips in his own.

Bella kissed him back just as passionately and wondered which Gods they had angered to deserve this Fate?

One day?

Sure, in normal circumstances she would have demanded the wooing and the dating and the gradual lead up to the bedding but that was no longer on offer. It was a single day and she for one wanted to fill that day with as much as they could.

She rocked against him and encouraged him to move closer and enter her.

Edward stroked her face and wiped the tears away, taking a single tear onto his finger and placing it inside his mouth.

Bella cried all the harder at the sight and he gently ran his nose against her throat.

His hand felt hers try to move it so he allowed her to do so, relaxing and controlling his own movements. Bella placed his hand on her breast and smiled up at his face.

"I guess if this is all we get, then it has to be enough," she said quietly.

"Bella, you need to know some things that I am free to share. I am not like you, not...human, not any more," he said, waiting for the screaming when reality hit.

"Edward,you drink blood from humans, you flew me to this meadow; I have had my hands on certain parts of your body, I know you are not human, not really. I don't even care what you are, you don't have to tell me."

"I can't, I wish I could. Jacob Black knows, on some level, he must know. He will tell you. You can never tell anyone, Bella. Lives, such as they are, depend on that."

"I will never tell if that's what you want, Edward," she promised.

"I could hurt you, kill you even, if we do this. You have to choose if we go on or if you would rather wait and give your gift to a human mate in the future. I cannot be your mate now, Bella. I want that more than anything, but it can't happen. I have to put my family first, I owe them so very much. I wish I could turn my back on them and run away with you instead but I can't do that. I can't leave them to die. I'm so sorry, my Bella."

Edward needed to be inside her, he needed to feel her and pretend for one day that this was his destiny, to be with Bella forever.

Sometimes forever is a single day, he mused.

"I'm here, and I am not stopping you. I need this too, Edward. In a way, you will always be mine once we do this, no matter what the universe decides, I will always own a little of you, as you will own a little of me. You will be my first and I will always have that."

"You will be my first , too, Bella, remember I have never been with a woman before. I have never wanted one until you came along and woke me up. Now it is all I could ever want and all I get is a single day."

"Do this, I want to be special to you, Edward and if this is how that can happen, do it. I love you," she cried, surprised to hear those words from her lips again but they were not a lie. Somehow today had happened and it was as if the entire lifetime they deserved to share had to happen, had to happen now, quickly, so many words, so many feelings. The truth was here.

"As I love you, my Bella."

His body entered hers and he felt her hymen strain and fight against him but a simple gentle push and it was gone, covering him with her blood as he pushed in further. The coldness of his shaft saved her any pain and she was gazing into his eyes deeply as he began to move inside her, pulling out a fraction then returning, unable to leave her.

She grasped his hair and ran her fingers through it, scraping and scratching his scalp and he held his head back and revelled in her touch.

Her body was made for his ,as he suspected, and he moved in deeper and edged almost out fully then plunged back inside. She was welcoming him with each thrust he made, taking him in like it was where he belonged.

It was where he belonged. He made no effort to excite himself or her into finishing, this was going to last some time, he would make sure of that. Her body was open to him completely, and he loved the feeling that they were one, he had waited 109 years for this single day.

Had it been worth it?

Absolutely.

The seventeen years as a human, the ninety two as a lost and lonely vampire, all had been leading here to this moment in time.

As he pushed in and out and watched her face as she cried silently and touched every inch of him that she could reach, he started to wonder how on earth this fragile human girl was going to be able to cope. She would not want to watch him with Tanya, she would suffer and cry and be lost now she had given him her gift.

Maybe the only gift he could give her was sweet and gentle death.

He could take her body then drain her blood and keep it inside him, never taste another humans blood again. She would be part of him as he endured a long eternity with the other girl that he scarcely knew and didn't want to get to know.

He dismissed the thought immediately, if there was one gift he could not give her it was death. He could never bring himself to remove her from his world, for without here there why would he bother existing himself?

His mind was capable of so many thoughts happening at once yet they all stalled and died as he tried to find the answer.

Tanya would hold their fates in her hand and from what he did know of Tanya, she would soon find out the power she held over the family, and she would make demands. The first would be that he become her mate now. No other scenario would ever pacify the likes of her.

He couldn't let the others die for his folly, he had hurt the girl, he had to accept her as his responsibility.

"I don't care if what you do to me does end in my death, today will be the last day of happiness, you are killing me anyway," Bella confessed.

Edward gazed into her eyes and felt the exchange of love and the absence of hope. He moved more quickly and felt her body respond to his, tightening and grasping his shaft as she shook and her walls closed in and held him tight.

The pulses released his own orgasm and he held her tightly. She cried out his name into the pretty meadow and and he called hers back to her. He felt so different as though the act they had committed had matured his mind and emotions and made him her equal. He was no longer the bumbling, pathetic, oblivious vampire whose emotions had frozen in time, he was a man, her man.

There must be a way.

He had to think.

Carlisle had tried every method of suicide and never found an answer.

There had to be a way for him to die here today with this girl. He could not endure life without her now.

He turned her and spooned her body close to his, kissing her hair, feeling the blood escape from her body and pool on his thighs as she lay as close as he could get her. Her back rested against his chest and her backside fitted in the curve of his pelvis, and she felt like part of him. She opened her legs and forced his penis back inside her then sat still, just being unable to let them be apart, not seeking more pleasure yet.

What had started as simple lust had transformed and turned into love, something he had never had since his human parents died before his change. His new family cared for him but they loved one another, their mates. That was who they lived and died for. He had always been so alone, so lonely and now he had found his other half of his soul, his twin soul, he was not about to let anything separate them again.

He would be alone again after today, no matter what happened with Tanya. She could never enter his heart. Carlisle had told him how when love arrived for a vampire it was unchanging, eternal, if a mate died the other could never replace it.

He could be with Tanya, even have sex with Tanya, but it would be like the sex so many humans foolishly chose, sex without love, without connection, without meaning.

It would be like the arrangement he had read in so many minds.

Fuck buddies they called it.

It would be nothing like this, this magnificence, this beauty, this perfection. His body started to rock again, reaching hidden depths inside her and she smiled and rocked against him and he shook with emotion as he witnessed the way it should always be. He could not do this with Tanya or anyone else. He would have to do whatever it took to keep her quiet and happy but even if she stole his body, she would never have access to his heart and his love.

When both he and Bella started to feel the feeling, and know the ending was close, he held her tight, so tight, and screamed to her God, and maybe his as well.

"Do not part us, God, please, do whatever it takes but let us be together. Let us please you with our love and devotion for one another as you will never find love like ours again. She would die for me as I would willingly die for her. Save us ,Lord."

Bella slumped in his arms and for a minute he thought he had killed her, crushed her to death in his embrace but she was simply sobbing, unable to fight any longer.

He turned to face her and she gasped and reached for his eyes.

He felt the tears he was crying and saw her lift her finger, a contact on the tip.

"Edward, your eyes really are green," she exclaimed, kissing the wetness from his cheeks.

She lay both lenses on the grass and snuggled up beside him and he tried to move, to throw his arm around her and keep her safe but he couldn't move.

She noticed in time, as she chatted quietly about how the rest of the day would go and how she meant it when she said she would rather die here with him that have to leave him ever again.

He could hear her talking but not reply, nothing worked anymore, he could no longer move.

He gazed at the sky and Bella rolled to face him and stopped speaking.

Her hand reached to stroke his cheek and she stood suddenly, crying in earnest now.

He saw what Alice was seeing, the image was in his brain.

The old Edward was dead and laying naked in a meadow full of wildflowers and Bella Swan was standing naked over him, crying so their tears mixed and rolled down his face.

"I've killed Edward," she whispered, folding her arms across her chest and hugging her body tightly.


	9. Chapter 9

**How awesome for Nine Inch Nail fans, seeing Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross get their Oscars! I always said Trent was a musical genius, now the Academy agree with me! RPatz even said in an interview he would have liked Something I Can Never Have to have been played as Edward dumped Bella in NM.**

The CEO

Chapter 9

Alice appeared and walked slowly to Bella, not wanting to frighten her further.

"I have killed him, Alice. I wanted him to kill me but I killed him instead."

Alice crouched and touched her brother.

"He isn't dead, he is in shock. He has never had sex before Bella, and he is under so much stress with the Tanya thing..."

"Is he going to be okay?" Bella asked.

"As okay as he can be, being forced to mate with the wrong girl. I know you don't understand, Bella but there's rules we have to follow. In our world."

Alice handed Bella a pair of Esme's jeans and a Tshirt, and the girl pulled them on.

"I know what you are," Bella said.

"You do? Are you sure?" Alice asked, smiling.

"Vampires," Bella replied.

"What makes you think that?" Alice asked.

"Alice, Edward drinks human blood. I Googled porphyria, it's just a myth that humans with that condition need to drink other humans blood. The only creatures that drink blood are vampires.

He was so strange at the cinema and he told me that silly movie was inaccurate. I didn't realize the significance of that statement. Of course he knew it was silly and wrong, it just had him completely confused.

He told me Carlisle and Esme had been married for ninety years then when I corrected him, he haphazardly suggested maybe thirty years would be a better answer. He speaks the truth then has to cover it with a lie. How old is he, Alice?"

"109, this year. He was changed when he was almost eighteen years old, that's why he is the wonderkid of big business, he looks like a kid because he is one. He has been seventeen all these years, Bella and he has never touched a girl or fallen in love until he met you. It's like this happened to him because otherwise he would have been an old man, maybe dead already, by the time you were born, otherwise."

"But we can't be together. He has to marry Tanya," Bella said sadly.

"I don't think he will bother marrying her, that's not a law, he just has to be her mate. No, the only images I ever saw of Edward marrying were ones where you walked down the aisle towards him."

"Do you still see them?" Bella asked.

Alice shook her head sadly.

"I don't think he will ever marry now. He will grieve for you for the rest of his existence."

"I don't think I can stay here in Forks and see him with her, with Tanya. I think it would be best if I left. I don't know where to go or how to get there, but living here would kill me now."

"I have put ten million dollars in your bank account. I faked you up a Lottery win, you will get the letter tomorrow in the mail. Here," she said, handing Bella a tattered lottery ticket.

It was stamped across the front as having been claimed and filed already.

"It was from an unclaimed prize seven months ago, I just forged the ticket and collected the winnings for you. It's legit enough. The real winner is dead and his ticket was burned in the same fire that claimed his life, I checked. I can summon up a retro vision if I know enough."

"I own ten million dollars," Bella stated. "I would give every cent if I could have Edward instead."

"I know, sweetie but you can't. But you can have a great life, with all the luxury money can buy. That's all I can do for you."

"Thanks Alice. Are you sure he is going to be okay because if he dies..."

"He can't die, Bella. It's not an option. He would probably choose to die rather than live without you if he could."

Bella touched his face, stroked his forehead, his nose, his cheeks and her tears splashed upon his face as she kissed his unresponsive lips. She ran her hand through his hair and closed her eyes tightly.

"I will never forget him, or this hair. It feels like newborn baby hair, Alice. It's so soft and beautiful. I will remember Edward forever."

"Bella, he would want you to be happy. You have to try, promise me. And don't do anything reckless. God, he would expose us all and go to the Volturi if you died. You have to go on and be happy and try to find love again. You are a human, it is an option."

"What do you mean?"

"Edward is a vampire, as you say. He has already found his mate and his mind has expanded and grown and developed around that fact, now it's there for eternity. You must have noticed the change from bumbling idiot to mature lover?"

"I kind of liked the bumbling Edward as well," Bella admitted.

"He can have sex with Tanya but it will be meaningless to him, just a way of no longer needing human blood. He will never feel emotionally again though, that part of his life was cut tragically short. Once he has sex with her, his feelings for you will be locked away like a hidden treasure chest. He will know he did once know love, but he won't remember you. It's the way he can turn to a Tanya and continue to exist. He will be as lonely and unattached as he was before he met you. She will just be a way of keeping him from needing humans."

"No, Alice, surely Jasper could do that thing and make Edward think he loves her? Please ask him to do that, for me. I can go on and travel and have a different life but he can't be grieving for me, he has to be happy and in love, even if it is a lie."

"I will ask Jas," Alice promised.

"One question. Why does Edward call Jake a dog?"

"Shapeshifters. When vampires are in town, the Quileutes have this change happen and they can transform to any shape but their ancestors chose wolves, so most would assume they are werewolves, but strictly speaking, they aren't."

"Does Jacob know?"

"He's been told a dozen times in a dozen ways, it's in their stories and legends. Like Billy says, he refuses to hear."

"Some things are hard to hear, Alice."

"Yes, I mean to ask you, was 'the cat's on the roof' the right way to go?"

"What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"The old joke. Vic goes away on vacation and leaves his friend Howie house sitting for him. Howie calls him on the phone one day and says "Vic, your cat is dead."

Vic says "Howie, I have had that cat for thirteen years. I love that cat. You should have broken it to me gradually. Like, on the first day call and say ,'Vic, the cat is on the roof'. Next day "Vic, the cat is still on the roof, it's not eating or drinking at it looks tired." Next day,"Vic, the cat slipped off the roof and is in a coma." Finally, "Vic, the cat died." So, I have four days to come to terms with knowing my cat was probably going to die and now it has. It's better than just "Your cat died." That's too cruel."

"Okay, sorry ", says Howie and a few days later he calls Vic again.

"Vic, your mother-in-law is on the roof."

"And this is relevant because?" Bella asked.

"The way I told you Edward had food allergies, and he is on medications, then the blood disease then you finally know the truth, he is a vampire. That was easier than had you known from the start, right?"

"I guess so. I always knew he was special. I should go."

"Bella, I really am sorry things didn't work out between you two. Really sorry."

"Thanks Alice. It would have been amazing having you as my sister and Emmett and Jasper as my brothers. And Esme is like the perfect mother, right?"

"She is, and she loves you, Bella. She always liked you but now she truly loves you, and they are all grief striken that things couldn't happen like we all wanted. I have to call them and tell them where he is. None of them knew where the meadow was."

"You did. You could have come and stopped us making love," Bella said.

"I could have but why would I want to do that? You love Edward, he loves you. This is the only part of the story that's right and how things should be, I had to let you both have that."

"Thanks, Alice. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Bella. I will look after him for you. I always have."

"I know. " Bella replied, kneeling beside the fallen vampire. " Goodbye my love, be happy. Look after my heart, I have left it with you," she said kissing Edward's lips for a final time, then walking away.

"Bella, take Edward's car. He has other's, he would want you to keep it."

Alice tossed Bella the keys and Bella walked down to the road and opened the door of the Volvo. It still smelled like Edward. She hoped that scent would linger forever.

Alice frowned, all sight of Bella was being erased from her mind, like she had never had any visions of her at all. She tried to see something simple, just see Bella drive into the driveway at the Chief's house, but nothing.

She tried to dredge up an old image, but still nothing.

She couldn't see Bella any more.

That seemed a little unfair, she would have liked to keep tags on the human and make sure her life worked out for the best. The best of what was left.

She sighed and pulled her cellphone and trilled quickly to her father, telling him where they could come and retrieve Edward.

xxx x xxx

Carlisle checked his son again.

Three days, no movement.

Alice assured him it would end today, Edward would wake up, and then the hard part would begin. Convincing him to mate with Tanya.

She had come through the change looking magnificent. Her manner was even worse than before, magnified, and she was constantly demanding Edward come and train her himself. She was quite smug and victorious and seemed little bothered to have lost her humanity, if Edward was the prize she got to keep as compensation.

It was almost as if she had planned it from the start, but that could not be. It was an accident, a tragic, life changing, sad and sorry accident that benefited nobody but Tanya herself.

Rose was keeping her company while the others waited for Edward to return to consciousness. They had hunted and Tanya spent much of her day admiring her new perfection in a mirror. She was stunning, even Carlisle had to admit that fact.

Somehow he knew her beauty was going to go unnoticed by Edward. His love was otherwise.

Bella Swan had won the lottery and headed off on a round the world trip.

Charlie had refused to go with her, but she had paid off his debts and left him with a tidy nest egg so he could retire whenever he chose. If he chose. He loved his job, he would work until he dropped in all likelihood.

Tanya was waiting for 'her Edward' to wake up and for their new life together to begin.

Alice had announced Tanya was not to have the cottage, she would personally raze it to the ground if she so much as walked inside.

It was Bella's cottage and if she came back home after they had moved on, as soon they must, she would have a place to live and dream and remember.

xxx x xxx

Edward opened his eyes and sat up, looking around at the faces watching him.

"How do you feel, son?" Carlisle asked.

"Odd. Weak. Tired," he answered.

"You had better get your strength back for this new mate of yours, she looks like the kind of lady that takes a lot of satisfying," Emmett joked, and gently hit Edward's arm.

They all stopped in shock as they heard the bone snap.

"Aurgh," Edward shouted and Carlisle was at his side, holding the limb.

A stuttering heartbeat filled the air, pausing, accelerating, stumbling, then falling into rhythm.

"Edward, you are human again," Carlisle gasped.

Edward would never have believed it but the pain of the broken bone seemed to confirm the diagnosis and vampires did not have breakable bones.

He looked at his skin, suddenly slightly tanned, marked, an odd freckle or mole here and there.

"How could this have happened?" he asked.

"Her blood, the blood that she bled when you made love with her, it entered your own body," Carlisle said, frowning. He had detected that had happened but had dismissed it as trivial. There were no records of humans and vampires mating unless the vampire was doing it to finish with a feast of blood as he drained the human dead once he climaxed.

There had never been a vampire Romeo before.

The family assembled at the table and Tanya's pout was pitiful as she bemoaned the loss of her chance to be with the man she had fancied from the first day she lay eyes on him. She had enjoyed the times Edward spent with her, even though she could hardly recall what they had said or done together, and the sessions had always left her feeling weakened and drained.

Now she understood, he had chosen her to feed his most basic need.

She dismissed it when Jasper pointed out she had merely been one of many, Edward had turned to many other human girls in the same way, still Tanya was convinced she was special. This man was not slipping through her cold hard fingers now.

"I can just turn him back, surely. You all managed to change me, why can't you simply change Edward again?" she asked, impatient and almost bored. The new brain was amazing, but at the moment she had trouble concentrating on any one thing, as the dozens of topics hurtled through her head.

"Edward would get to choose if he wanted that to happen," Carlisle said sharply. "Last time it was a matter of life or death, this time there is no such pressing need. Of course I would be happy to bring about his change again but Edward needs time and space to see what he would prefer. Maybe being human is what he will want."

"But doesn't that mean the Volturi will know we have a human pet amongst us and kill him? He knows the secrets yet he is no longer one of us. That's very against the rules, Carlisle. Just change him back," Tanya ordered.

Edward stood and faced them all.

"She has a point. It won't be safe for me to remain here in this family, I will have to move on alone, until I find Bella."

Tanya hissed.

"I'm sure Carlisle will find you a playtoy, there are often hikers injured out in the woods, we usually bring about their rescue but sometimes one will fall from a cliff and be too badly hurt. Next time that happens he can make you a mate, Tanya. I wish I had considered that from the start. There was never a need for Bella and I to be separated, I could have simply saved some hopelessly wounded human for you. Alice, where is Bella now? I need to get on a plane and go find her."

Alice frowned and concentrated harder than she had ever done before.

Nothing.

"Bella, Isabella Swan, where are you?" she asked the air.

Nothing still.

"I can't see her any more, Edward. I don't understand why, I can still see glimpses of you, you are catching a plane to Paris tonight, at 8.22pm. You will sleep for the entire trip, which will frustrate the girl in the seat beside you."

"Will I find Bella in Paris?" he asked his sister.

"I just don't see what happens. You will play at a concert hall there by nights and paint artwork by day. You are pretty good, for a human, and your paintings sell well."

"But if Bella's not there, why would I stay?" he asked, perplexed.

"I think in your heart you know the two of you are meant to be together and now there is every reason to hope that will happen, you will be patient and wait for her to find you. Imagine that, Edward with patience!" she trilled and the others laughed quietly. It had never been easy for Edward to be patient.

xxx xxx xxx

Edward caught the 8.22 and sure enough, exhaustion took over and he slept. It was strange, he rarely tired as a vampire, only when the girls he fed from were exhausted themselves and even then, once the feeding was done, he always recovered quickly.

Sleep was magical, and when the plane reached it's destination, and the attendant woke him to buckle his seatbelt, his heart dropped, because in his dream he had just spent a few intoxicating hours in Bella's arms.

Turning human was so strange, but so quiet and peaceful. Although he could read people's minds with the help of their faces and body language easily, there were no voices echoing in his head now. It was silent.

That alone was blissful.

It would take some getting used to. Now his only method of keeping in contact with Alice would be the normal human methods, phones, email.

She would be unable to share her thoughts and predictions with anyone.

That would be strange for her, she had become so excited the day she and Jasper arrived at the Cullen house and she found everything in her head was instantly in Edward's as well.

Now her thoughts were her own again.

xxx

Bella Swan crouched and grasped at her belly and shivered. The nausea was worse, every day the nausea was increasing and although one would expect her body to grow frail and thinner at the inability to keep food down, it was the reverse.

She stood up on shaky legs and looked in the mirror on the wall.

Her frame was as small as ever but her abdomen was bloated and soft and looked almost like she was halfway through a pregnancy.

She touched her skin that stretched tightly over her new shape and choked when she felt the nudge.

No way, even if that one single day in the meadow had left her pregnant, there had been merely a single month go by, at so called 6 weeks pregnant, one would still be unsure it was real, not sporting this protuberance, not feeling this creature push against her uterus.

She had to cut this trip short and return to Forks.

Carlisle would know what to do, he must have delivered vampire babies before.

By now Edward and Tanya would be a happily married couple but bad luck, this would not be the first time in history the groom had entered a marriage after leaving his seed inside another woman and have to face up to accepting he had a child.

If he wanted nothing to do with the baby once it was born, so be it, she was a modern woman, with money, she would raise it herself.

She knew Esme was the type of woman who would embrace a grandbaby, she would have help.

If the newlyweds hated it so much, then they could move away and live in some condo near the office. Edward's reaction was not her most pressing worry, she feared this baby may be stronger than she was. Every nudge was leaving her slightly bruised.

Clearly this was not the nine month model but that was just as well, if she was this battered and bruised already, how would she be by the end?

She entered the airport and explained to the woman behind the desk she was pregnant and wanted to book the entire first class section for herself only, she was no doubt about to spend the entire trip vomiting anyway.

The woman started to protest about allowing her to do this so Bella handed her a roll of notes.

The woman picked up the phone and started explaining to other first class ticket holders that she had accidentally double booked them and they would now be travelling on another flight tomorrow, at the airline's own expense, a full refund was ready for them to collect when they booked it.

Now Bella's request was handled, and the woman placed a stack of first class tickets on the counter.

"My name is Flora, If there's anything else I can do for you, Miss Swan, please just ask," she said, picturing the new car she would buy tomorrow on her day off. Finally that damned hand me down car from her mother-in-law could go to the junkyard as it deserved, and she would have a better car than her husband.

"I need somewhere to wait, a private room, with a bathroom attached," Bella asked.

"This way," she said, leading her new favorite customer toward the V.I.P. private rooms usually reserved for royalty or the most important V.I.P's. Elvis and The Beatles had used this room but it's existence was not widely known, they didn't want every self important business tycoon or one hit wonder popstar demanding it's use. Flora herself got to decide who was worthy to have access and she had decided any woman looking as green around the gills with the money this woman clearly had was just as deserving as Elvis had been.

Bella looked around gratefully, and sank into the luxurious red velvet couch, and Flora raised her legs and put her feet up on the matching ottoman.

A bottle of cold Bling H20 water appeared at her side on a small table, along with a glass full of ice.

"Try sipping a little ice water, it numbs the gag reflex," Flora advised.

Bella did as she suggested and gradually the sick feeling abated.

"Try and sleep, I will waken you in plenty of time to help you board first, before the business class passengers," Flora promised.

Bella relaxed and felt a few silent tears run down her cheeks. She knew Flora was simply caring for her thanks to the money she had tipped her, but it had been a long and lonely month without friendship or companionship and her nights had been disturbed, full of dreams of Edward and her mornings were so blissful for that one short second when you opened your eyes and thought the dream had been real.

She lived for that second, once reality broke through and she knew she was alone and unloved, she struggled to get through the day and following night, nervously anticipating the hope the next morning second would be as good as today's.

She felt Edward's love in her dreams, she almost felt his arms around her, her back pressed into his chest, their feet intermingled.

She sighed in her sleep as he stroked her face and kissed the top of her head.

One single day, they had not even had a whole day but the time they had shared had been blissful.

It had to last her a lifetime and she was grateful that would only be a human length lifetime because eighty years would be hard enough to endure.

Maybe this creature's birth would kill her, she didn't really care.

Something told her a human was going to be too inadequate to raise this child, she would not be what it needed in a parent. Maybe Edward and Tanya would raise it for her.

Maybe it would look a tad like her and remind Edward of their love together and he would have something to hold onto of theirs, unlike her.

Bella accepted that this pregnancy may well mean her death, but the best part of her life, the single day, had already been lived. All that remained were those single seconds.


	10. Chapter 10

The CEO

Chapter 10

"Edward Cullen, what the fuck? Do you know how many people have been travelling all over the fucking world looking for you? What are you doing here in La Push?" Jake demanded.

For the last two months everyone had been on Edward alert. The Cullens were panicking madly, something very weird had happened to Bella and she could die at any moment and all she wanted was Edward.

And nobody could locate him.

"I came to see your father, see if we could renegotiate something," Edward answered, puzzled.

"The treaty? Fuck, do you have any idea what a shock it was to find out all the old bullshit was true? Anyway, we have to get you to Bella. It's life and death, probably both."

"Bella? She's here?" Edward asked. He had been everywhere he could think she could possibly be, he had visited every relative, old friend, anyone who ever knew her and all the time she was here? Being a human was not as much fun as he had hoped, it was kind of like suddenly becoming both mentally and physically handicapped.

He could no longer read minds, hear their thoughts, know things people didn't want him to know. The ability had faded over the weeks and now he was no better off than the average Joe. Worse really, they never had it, he had it and lost it.

"She's at the Cullen house. Carlisle is battling to keep her alive. Your spawn is killing her."

"My spawn...Bella is pregnant?" Edward asked in shock. Jake opened the passenger door of the VW and shepherded Edward inside, then climbed into the driver's seat.

The road was quiet and they made good time, hopefully good enough time.

"Yeah, and not to the regular human Edward. How's that working out for you, by the way?"

"Later, what has happened? How could she be pregnant, it's not possible, not to a vampire?"

"Clearly you are wrong about that, she swears she has never, you know, been, with anyone else and I believe her."

"Of course, normally so would I but humans and vampires...they can't breed, they can't. They are different species, it's like a cat being pregnant to a dog. Doesn't happen."

"Yeah well,in Texas they are breeding panthers with cougars, it happens."

"I think a panther and a cougar have more in common than a human and a vampire," Edward answered.

"Yeah but you used to be a human and apparently you didn't do any, you know, fucking around, right? Maybe you had sperm still stored? Maybe the coldness of your vampire body preserved it then you stuck it into Bella and bingo."

"If that were true, the baby would be all human and not a problem," Edward pointed out. Anyway, he had, um, emptied that old stored supply by his many solo encounters, surely.

Carlisle rushed inhumanely quickly to his side as Jake pulled up and Edward felt himself propelled inside post haste.

"Bella, my God. Why didn't you get rid of it?" he growled at Carlisle. "She is only three months pregnant and look at her? Six more months ? She will be dead in six more hours."

"She wouldn't let me, she threatened to kill herself if I killed it," his former father replied.

"Bella, my love, this thing is clearly killing you. Let Carlisle take it away, we could have a proper human baby together. I promise, you can have all the babies you want. Just let him save your life."

Bella groaned and clutched her stomach and tears streaked down her face.

"You don't want it? You don't want our baby?" she gasped, as though the very idea was impossible.

"Not at the expense of your life. Bella, I am human, we can have eighty years together, do this one thing for me. Please. I will never ask anything of you again."

"Okay. Okay. Do it," she croaked.

Carlisle grabbed his arm and pulled him aside

"What do you want to happen? Do I change her to save her? Do you want to be one of us again?" Carlisle asked.

"Only if there is no other way. I want her to stay human, I want to learn to be human with her. I won't risk her soul, Carlisle."

Edward blinked, she was gone, Carlisle was gone, Rose and Esme and Alice were all just streams of color as they rushed upstairs into the room where the abortion would take place.

It seemed like hours but a mere ten minutes later Carlisle called him upstairs.

Bella lay there, pale, unconscious, but already the blood transfusion into both arms was making color appear in her cheeks.

"Were you in time?" Edward asked desperately.

"I think so. I have called an ambulance, I will care for her in the hospital in town. Gynecological problem, hormonal hemorrhage, it happens."

"The...thing?"

"You don't want to see it, believe me, Edward. I promise I will get Bella better and you two can go and be happy together. Never come back, let her forget and have a normal life, normal babies."

"Can she have more babies?" Edward asked.

"I think so. I removed the entire sac with the fetus inside, and sealed her uterus with venom, it healed instantly. Her incision is almost gone, look."

He held up the pad of gauze and Edward could barely make out the faint line across her belly, from below her breasts to her pubic hairline, it was ragged and angry but faded like a twenty year old scar and it disappeared completely as he watched.

The ambulance arrived and Jake and Edward carried Bella downstairs and placed her on the gurney. Carlisle climbed in beside his patient. She was still unconscious but breathing normally now. He prayed he never came that close to losing a patient again. It had been beyond touch and go, it had been a miracle. He would not even tell Edward how the baby had taken a bite of Bella's breast as he delivered it, and he had been forced to order Esme to suck the venom out, as Bella screamed and writhed in instant agony. There was no way they wanted a vampire Bella and a human Edward, the tragedy would go on forever.

He didn't want her changed, she could not raise a half vampire baby that could kill her. Kill them both. Like the Immortal Children of the past, he suspected the child would have to be put to death for all their sakes and he was not inflicting more pain on this couple. Better they thought of it as a three month fetus and coped with the 'miscarriage' by trying again soon.

Esme watched from the upstairs window and turned to Rose, who was holding the baby, gazing adoringly at him.

"No, no way, I have waited centuries, you have been a vampire half a minute, I am keeping him," she said, taking the baby from her daughter-in-law.

"What are you naming him?" Rose asked, touching the child's cheek.

"My son's name is Damon Edward Anthony Carlisle Cullen, but we shall call him Deacon."

"Deacon. hello little Deacon," Rose gushed, stroking his arm.

The baby slept and they both watched him in silent awe.

"I am guessing we will be using the rest of the blood supply to feed this little monster," Alice said, walking in with a baby's bottle full of delicious smelling human nectar.

"God this smells divine."

Rose snatched it from her and touched the silicon nipple to the baby's lips and he stirred and opened his mouth, rolling his head from side to side.

"I feed him first, he is my son," Esme announced, lifting the blanketed bundle, and taking the bottle.

Deacon settled and sucked on the teat and Alice and Rose both smiled, and clapped as though he had performed a great feat.

"Shit no, Carlisle is thinking he will have to euthanize him, Deacon" Alice cried.

"What?" screeched Rose. "He is not touching one hair on this baby's head."

"Pack the car, I will tell Carlisle I needed to get away for a while to get over the tragedy of poor Bella's miscarriage, and spend some time with the cousin's in Alaska," Esme ordered.

Alice was gone, Rose seconds behind her and in no time the car was packed.

"I'll drive you," Rose offered. She wanted to meet the cousins.

"I will join you later, I am stopping in Seattle to baby shop," Alice squealed.

Rose scowled.

"Oh, you get to be in the car with him, be nice," Alice added at the look.

Carlisle checked the results, it was all good. The chart recorded a spontaneous hormonal hemorrhage, not completely uncommon. Maybe some would conclude a very early spontaneous abortion, but there was no proof, no product of a pregnancy.

"How is she?" Edward asked yet again.

"Fine, I'm not even slightly concerned. Her cell count is excellent, we did the right thing, Edward. I promised you I would take care of the problem and I have. There is no evidence that proves conceiving again after a single normal period has any higher risk of miscarriage than if you wait.

I suggest you make your decision on Bella's mental state. Let her decide when she is ready to try again. Edward, she will recover consciousness shortly. Do you want me to dazzle her? It would be kinder. She would forget the past three months, never know what she lost. You could tell her she had a fall and hit her head. Humans do things like that all the time."

Edward gazed at the slim, pretty girl in the bed. She was so broken, so pale, so thin.

"We will tell her she had a virus and was unconscious and thus lost weight. Yes, dazzle her. Thank you, Carlisle."

"I'm just sorry I didn't know to warn you, Edward."

"You couldn't know everything."

"Yes but I thought I did, that's the rub."

Bella opened her eyes, the dizziness blurred her vision and she grabbed onto the sheeted mattress.

She could hear Carlisle's voice but it was so soft and distant. She relaxed, suddenly she felt a lot better.

Her eyes flickered and she could see clearly. And what a sight for sore eyes.

"Edward!" she exclaimed. "You are back. Are you still..."

"Yes, human," he whispered. "Shush now, you have been quite ill with a rare virus, you have lost a lot of weight. We need to get you better and take you away on a vacation so you can recuperate fully. Maybe a cruise? Where would you like to go?"

"Anywhere with you. Did I leave and start my world trip?" she asked, frowning in an effort to remember.

"Yes but not for long. You fell ill and came back to Carlisle, he has been working to keep you alive for months. It was very scary stuff, my Bella."

"Well, there you go. That's what it is like being human, you may be sorry you didn't just change me. Was Carlisle going to, if I didn't get better?"

"Only as a last resort, my love. I would never want that half life for you. You deserve a full and proper life. I have plans, as soon as you regain the weight and feel up to a wedding, I plan to propose in Paris. In the moonlight, under the Eiffel Tower, maybe. Or you choose, wherever you would like that to happen, it will."

"I was kind of thinking a little closer to home. The meadow?"

"Fine, then the proposal happens before we leave on our trip. I want us to live somewhere else, Bella, far from here and the vampires and werewolves. I need all that left behind us so we can go have a proper human life together."

"Won't you miss them? Your family?"

"I learned to live without my real parents once already, I can do this again. As long as I have you, love, my heart will be full anyway."

xxx

Alice stacked even more baby blue outfits into the shopping cart and wondered how many changes of clothes a vampire/human hybrid would need. Better safe than sorry. Oh, that's cute, and it comes in four colors. And that romper, that is to die for.

She sobered for a minute. They were doing the right thing, she was convinced of that. Carlisle would want to err on the side of caution and they needed time to prove to him the baby could not harm them in any way. It stood to reason, Deacon would not be as strong or as venomous as they were. They were full vamps, he was but a half-breed.

Maybe they would have to up sticks and leave Forks but she was bored there anyway.

The company could keep functioning without them, the humans were passably capable if they kept an eye on the books and she kept funding up.

She could do that from anywhere.

She rubbed her brow and watched Carlisle as he signed Bella Swan out of the hospital, in her head. Bella looked fine, great even. Her color was back, her figure trim, and she had no idea what had happened to her.

They really should all make a pact to never tell her, or Edward.

He was simply relieved she had been saved, he was not mourning the loss of the baby at all, but then, he had no idea it was a baby. He was thinking in human terms, a three month old fetus was not the tragedy a full term infant was, in his mind anyway.

He was slightly concerned that he had lied to Bella and she watched as Carlisle spoke slowly, close to his face.

Oh, he was dazzling Edward. He too would now think Bella had just been ill.

Alice was happy and relieved now.

And that little set of striped Tshirt under denim dungarees better come in a few colorways and sizes, because that was truly perfect.


	11. Chapter 11

The CEO

Chapter 11

The wedding was a little of a letdown, to be honest, with no family or friends around us, celebrating. Bella looked beautiful, amazing, as always. I had issues with my hair but to my relief, now it could be cut and styled and it sat neatly for the photos, taken by a stranger as we left the registry office in Paris.

It didn't matter, we were married, that was the important part. Bella showed no sign of regretting missing on the royal occasion Alice would have insisted on, and arranged single handed. I worried Bella would regret the lack of a proper wedding dress, she was dressed in a below the knee blue frock that was a work of art but it was nothing like the lace and tulle concoctions most brides wore on their big day.

She held a simple posy consisting of maybe a dozen flowers, a rose being the centerpiece, and her shoes matched her dress. The color made her skin look so creamy I wanted to bite and suck on her neck as she said her vows to me.

It was an anti-climax, having no reception, no well wishers, nobody who cared about what we had done. Not a single card or gift, nothing. It was our own doing, we had told no-one. I needed to divorce myself from my adoptive family for all our sakes and Bella's parents were unable to come to France, so that was it, really. Just an exchange of words, meaningful as they were, now we stood there on the steps together, wondering what one did after marrying their soulmate alone in a foreign country.

"Would you like to go to lunch somewhere ritzy?" I asked my bride and she grinned.

"Sure, Edward, whatever you prefer."

I didn't like that, I wanted us to do what she wanted, it was her day.

Bella waved down a cab and we went to her favorite restaurant and sat up high in the diningroom, overlooking the city below.

"Married, and in Paris," she smiled but I was no fool, I knew this was light years away from what every girl wanted. She would have preferred a gathering of friends in our meadow, and a frothy dress and Alice being her attendant. I wished my brothers could have been here, by my side, and Esme and Carlisle had gotten to see us wed. Mom would have cried and hugged Bella like she was her own daughter. Dad would have been so proud of me, finally married, finally happy.

But none of this matters.

Tonight is the official honeymoon and we haven't been sleeping together since my transformation so tonight will be extra special, the first time I make love with my Bella as an equal. My mind is full of the memories of the day we made love in my meadow and I can't wait to feel that intense, overwhelming pleasure again.

I had been forced to hold back so much I had used maybe one hundredth thousandth of what I could have offered to a vampire mate but Bella being human had forced that restraint.

Now we are equal, now I can let go and experience all the pleasure our bodies are capable of.

Bella either reads my mind or has the same idea herself because she places her spoon on the table and says she is done, the chocolate mousse is not as captivating as going back to our hotel room, so I quickly pay the check and leave a large tip and grab my girl, no, my wife! My wife.

I grab my wife and we run and hail a cab and our hands can scarcely behave and wait until we arrive. The elevator is full so we are prevented from even kissing and standing close and rubbing my hard on against her sex through our clothes but finally, we are there, door open, us inside, door slammed closed. Clothes discarded, something ripped, who cares, and then the bed holds us as we drop together, naked, our hands now allowed to touch and stroke and begin the feelings that will lead to that mind blowing orgasm we both crave.

Bella's breasts feel so good, so familiar and my hands cup them reverently and I kiss her nipples and feel them pebble against my lips, making me suck them in and tease them with my tongue. I can feel it already, the almost painful anticipation building up in my belly.

God, we will have to do this all night long because once is not going to be anything like enough, I want to feel that feeling, like my very brain melted and was pumped out my dick into my Bella, God, I have relived that feeling in dream after dream.

She is impatient and opens her legs and grabs my erection and strokes it feverishly then slides it inside her.

"Oh," she says and I pause and look at her shocked face.

"What?" I ask quietly.

"Not cold, not what I recall, is all. Keep going."

I thrust inside her and frown a little. She is warm, I'm sure, but there's no amazing contrast in our temperatures, no feeling of ice and fire, it's more...warm in warm. That's okay, I buck and plow inside and grind against her sensitive spot.

I can feel the build up a little but it's got so far more to go yet and I'm shocked when I feel my dick explode inside her. I barely feel it happen, it's so different and strange. No feeling of endless streams of cold melting inside her heat, no intense magnified feeling of her fluttering...oh. Oh.

She didn't come, I hadn't held back.

"Sorry," I gasp and pull out, rubbing my own cock back to hardness and frown again. I'm nowhere near as hard as I used to be, by comparison my dick is almost soft.

I stroke harder, but nothing changes.

"Bella, something's wrong. You need to suck me or something, I can't get erect," I say and she looks down and laughs.

"You are erect, it's just different now. Not rock hard, not strong and relentless like a steel rod, pushing inside and thrusting against my..."

She stops as she realizes what she has said.

"It's still fine, Edward. Fine. It feels...good. Really."

I feel like a failure, I know how my cock was before and this is not it. It's shorter, thinner, lacking both the width and the length it had before and it seems rubbing it isn't changing it back. It gets no harder and I cringe inside.

I had no memory of what my dick was like before I was changed but I guess this is it.

"Hey, it's not about size, it's about what you do with it," she says and smiles at me.

I rub my shaft against her folds and feel the greatly reduced sensations to what it felt like in the meadow.

Whatever, I have to satisfy my wife so I push inside and get a rhythm going and she lays beneath me, smiling, trying to look like this is wonderful but even I can't deny it's too different, too pale a shadow of what we had before. Maybe if we had never made love, never known how awesomely wonderful it could be between us, this would be great, new, exciting but I know she is comparing and finding it as lacking as I am.

My body has that mild feeling again that I hadn't recognised as the signal it was about to spurt my seed inside her so I stroke at her clit with my fingers and slow down my thrusts and she sighs as her body orgasms, but I barely feel it, no fluttering, a little tightening barely discernible to me now, and she is done so I allow my body to jerk and fill her, but it doesn't leave me feeling satisfied at all.

I go to withdraw but my penis has shrunken and sags there between us, no need to pull out.

Rolling onto my back, I cover myself with the sheet and see Bella looking at me, then she quickly looks at my eyes instead and smiles.

"That was good, Edward. I'm sure we will get better with practice," she assures me.

I feel depressed, this was supposed to be mind blowing, I was meant to get that feeling I had before, only better.

I try to sleep to escape, and in my dreams I return to the times I allowed myself inside Emmett's head sometimes, when I was alone and he was screwing Rose, and remember how much I wished that was me, not with Rose of course, but with Bella. I had so looked forward to enjoying that intense never ending pleasure, but now it seems I am a three minute man and nothing like my brother.

I even trespassed into Jasper's head on occasion, it made it hard to look into my sister's eyes for days afterwards as she had this thing about riding him, grinding herself down on him, sliding her sex along his..

Not helping.

Human sex is all we get, somehow it has to be enough. I fall asleep and it's midday the next day when I awaken, it would seem even pretty bad sex takes a lot of human effort and I ache in places I didn't know I had.

X~x~X

Each day is an adventure, we have money, we can go anywhere, do anything, and buy whatever appeals to us. Bella is forever sending home packages to her family and mine and our friends, and she starts to discuss with me where we will live after this honeymoon is over.

I had anticipated the two of us wanting it to go on forever, so I had given little thought to what happened next.

My paintings and piano playing in clubs were just a distraction and a way to pass the time until I found Bella. Neither occupation appeals as a long term thing.

"Are you going to get a job?" Bella asks and I sigh.

Maybe I was a big time CEO but I never did anything related to the usual type of work one of those did. I have no idea how to really run a company, my days had been full of drinking blood and occasionally playing the stock market and somehow I don't think anyone will be impressed with those qualifications. I guess any job I can get will be more grunt work, unskilled labor and that definitely doesn't appeal.

We have enough money for me to never work but what do rich humans do to fill their days?

There are only so many museums to walk through, art galleries to visit, Bella shows less and less interest as we go to each successive new gallery.

"Maybe I should get a job, have a career," she suggests. "While I worked for Phil, I attended night school and did a course in creative writing. Maybe you could be househusband and I could write," she suggests, her eyes finally lighting up like they used to.

We decide to buy a house back in Forks, the Cullen's have moved on now, and when we get home again, I find a note from Carlisle offering us their house. They can never come back, the hiker they changed for Tanya is a rare type of newborn that we had never encountered before, one filled with uncontrollable bloodlust and it is taking the whole family to keep him in check. Two hikers were drained when he escaped their clutches briefly before they left so Charlie tells us about the mysterious 'accidental deaths' and we try and look surprised.

"Not a single drop of blood left in them and their bones were crushed like a boulder had rolled over parts of their bodies, and their throats..."

He pauses, sensing it's too bloody a story for his daughter.

"I will make coffee," Bella suggests and I am grateful she takes away my barely touched meal. Decades of not eating has left me with some stomach issues, after I consume food now my stomach cramps and hurts like a bitch so I tend to eat little.

Bella feeds me frequent small meals but the taste of human food is quite gross, and nothing like my Mom used to make me growing up. Bella has never heard of the dishes Mother made me but she Googles the recipes and tries to copy them.

I don't know if the fact it was so long ago is making the memories better than they really were or what, but the meals taste little like I remember.

Modern food is simply gross. McDonald's? God, I would rather still drain an animal and be done with it.

I can tolerate very basic steamed vegetables and a little red meat but grains and dairy hurt my gut, so I'm now on the special diet I always claimed to have been. Gluten free seems like code for flavor free and tasteless, and I nibble a rice cake and wonder what the fuck whoever invented them was thinking. Maybe he had been trying to invent an easily disposable coaster to put under your glass to protect his table?

What idiot ate the first one and decided it was food?

We decided what we both needed was a pick me up night out so after Charlie's we headed for the bar where we had spent our best nights before.

Southern Comfort actually made the Coke drinkable and Bella soon cheered up and got into a playful mood, dancing with me on the dancefloor, letting go of all her inhibitions. I loosened up and partied along with the other patrons and even managed to be polite and sociable to Jake Black and his date Leah.

We shared a table and his stories about growing up with Bella soon had us all in stitches, the girl has no problem laughing at herself.

The drinks kept coming and it was Bella who finally called a halt to it and dragged me to a cab, and we went to the Cullen house to spend the night. I wasn't sure I wanted us to live here permanently but it would do as a base until we bought whatever we wanted for ourselves.

Bella hauled me up the stairs to my old bedroom and snuggled down beside me, feeling no pain. Drunken sex was no better than sober sex but at least we could laugh about it and pretend it was a dismal failure only because of the alcohol.

The morning was rough. The sun was several times brighter than ever before, the forest animals and birds had all increased in volume and someone was using a jackhammer in my brain.

"Bella, I think I need to go to the hospital," I said, waking her up. I felt so very bad, terrible, dry mouth, sick to the stomach and my head! My head was heavy, sore, noisy, intolerable.

"Welcome to your first hangover, Edward," she said unfeelingly. It could not be that simple, I was sure I had at least a brain tumor and some rare virus making me feel this bad. When the vomiting hit, I knew she would finally worry but she just laughed and said it was all part of the morning after deal when one got blathered the night before.

I was convinced we needed to call Carlisle and have him come change me again or I would surely die but time proved Bella's diagnosis to be correct and somehow I survived.

For days I wished mainly that I was dead, then I wished I had never taken a single drink, then I started to recover and admit there was light at the end of the tunnel. I was sticking to a light diet, mainly clear fluids and my stomach was recovering but hell, what sort of moron would put themselves through that voluntarily and why had I suffered so much more than Bella?

She informed me she had more practise than I had and I could only wonder at her sanity, if she did that repeatedly.

Once we both felt well again, the sex returned, but it was no better than before and as the weeks went by, we both started avoiding situations that led to intimacy as it was just never as good as we hoped. I told myself every time it would get better but so far, there was no truth to my words.

We cuddled and kissed and gave one another relief in other ways, but sex itself had become something neither of us sought out much.

Competing against other men your wife may have slept with in the past was one challenge, but just trying to be as good as you were once yourself quite another.


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks for reviews, great to know some people are still reading this. Until I decided to finish my open stories and quit, I had NO idea how many open stories I have! It will take me a year to close them all! Cheers,Lynz...Easter Bunny bought me a Kindle!**

The CEO

Chapter 12

I always thought being with Bella would be all I ever wanted but as she became absorbed in her writing, I found myself at a loose end and missed the company of my brothers and Alice.

Carlisle had always held down a full time job and now I understood why. Even with his vampiric abilities, there were still 24 hours in every day and you do need some way to fill them, some amusement, some interest.

Now sex was low priority, I seemed to walk a lot and in the end, I took up running, racing alone along the pathways bordering the forest. Miles of green flashed by and my general fitness improved, something I had never had to worry about before.

Bella had taken over Carlisle's study and when she wasn't lost in her fictional world with the characters in her head, I caught her reading his medical reference books and that gave me the idea to study medicine. I had completed two medical degrees in the past but needed to go again and become a legitimate doctor with qualifications.

This necessitated a move in residence to NY which Bella was quite happy to agree to, her world was now inside her brain rather than in her surroundings so one location was as good as another.

Her first manuscript had been completed, sent to be edited and was now awaiting the decision of whether it was good enough to publish. She had sent copies to three small publishing companies only, unsure of her own talent.

I offered to read it for her and give her an unbiased opinion but she didn't trust me to tell her straight out if it was rubbish.

NYU welcomed me with open arms. I had decided I was twenty one years old and visited our old friend , J Jenks, for my birth certificate and such, seeing the human world demanded a written proof of everything. Twenty one seemed like a good compromise, it explained why I was not fresh from High School and being married at that age was far less scandalous than at seventeen, so twenty one it was.

"How was school?" Bella asked each day when I arrived home.

"Great, the work is so easy they have enrolled me in an advanced course and I will do the four years in just one. All those long nights of studying Carlisle's books and the degrees I earned already have put me at an amazing advantage, I am almost looked upon as a freak of nature. They call me Eddie Howser," I admitted with a laugh. I was the 'brother' of Doogie Howser, the child genius doctor of a tv show made back in the late 80's.

Bella loved writing, I loved studying and slowly but surely we got used to the limitations of human sexuality and our sex life got better.

Lowering our expectations helped, and trying new things gave us brief moments of pleasure, but I still hankered for our day in the meadow and genuinely grieved the loss of those sensations.

Nights were spent sleeping, it took time to come to terms with suddenly only half the day being available to me, my music suffered, there was simply not enough hours in the day to fit in everything.

As I lay wrapped around my Bella, I often just watched her sleep as my brain calmed down and switched onto stand-by for the night.

She slept well generally except for The Nights.

They were when the images of us together in that meadow entered her own brain and I had to lay there and regret I could no longer offer her that exquisite joy she was dreaming about.

"Edward, my God, so cold, so hard, oh Edward," she would cry as she rocked against the dream vampire version of myself.

The first time this happened I got turned on and joined her, entering her body and plunging inside but she woke in shock and I was crushed to see the disappointment in her eyes before she quickly got her guard up again and pretended the sex was as good as what she had been having with my ghost.

That taught me a lesson, dreams were the only way Bella could have that fantastic sex again so I stayed out of it and felt her writhe and heard her moan as ghost Edward pounded his long, cold and hard shaft into her, and her body sang and climaxed with just the images in her head.

It was frustrating, memories are never as good as the real thing , but for us, they were actually better.

The year ended with my graduation and starting my internship and finally I had real patients with real illnesses to challenge me.

"Who did you save today?" Bella would ask as we shared a meal. The good thing about her occupation was, she could fit it around mine and she wrote whenever I worked, keeping my meagre time off for us to be together.

Her first book had been selected to be published so that was exciting. It took time, but one day soon there would be a novel with Isabella Cullen's name on the cover in our local bookstore and I couldn't wait.

I told her about every patient I had, no names of course, just how interesting it was to find out what could go wrong with the fragile human body. Of course, this only made me worry more about Bella and every massage of her breasts was also a check for any tiny lumps, any irregularities, and I stroked her entire body most days, just keeping my eyes open for anything new.

"Have you always had that mole?" I asked her one day as I explored her back with my hands, covering by kissing her every few inches.

"Of course. I miss that photographic memory you used to have," she sighed.

"Has it grown or changed? I don't remember a mole being right there," I stated.

"Edward, I'm not your patient, calm down," she would remind me and I would let it go after assuring myself it was no larger, and not irregularly shaped. It was fine. But did she always have that one over there, near her shoulder?

The more you know the more you worry. Every headache flashes thoughts into your mind that maybe it's the beginning of a tumor, or dementia, she did lose her car keys twice last week and she forgot to pick up the dry cleaning.

I had little to compare with, how much did humans forget and still be considered normal and well?

I started telling my fellow interns about times she forgot or got confused but everyone laughed and assured me she was normal and they did those things themselves. I wanted to relax but seeing patient after patient, fit and healthy one minute, decimated by cancer or a virus or an accident worried me so much. My Bella had to stay with me, a lifetime without her as my mate would be intolerable. I would not want to live in this world without her by my side.

Her publisher came to call which sounded odd to me, don't people like that sit back in their fancy offices and let you go to them?

Bella's eyes were lit up with excitement, she was to go on a book signing tour and would be away a whole month but she was so happy and upbeat, I didn't dare bring her down with how much I would miss her.

Sex was now good, not amazing, but something we did every morning, and most nights before falling asleep in one another's arms and I could not imagine what it would be like to sleep alone. Days would be tolerable, I had my work and my patients and my Resident to keep me busy but nights?

The day she left, I held her tight and kissed her for the longest time and begged her to call me every night.

"Edward, it's four weeks and this is how it is for author's, once a book is published you have to go connect physically with your readers. I'm doing book readings and discussion groups, if I don't have my readers I don't have a marketable product. Be good, be patient, I will call every day if I have time. Now smile, it's a good thing that's happening for us. I will miss you."

Then she got into his car and was gone. I didn't like the fact that Peter, her publisher/ agent was travelling with her, he was too good looking and his wife Charlotte had that resigned 'here we go again' look on her face, like she knew once they were on the road, he would start something with my Bella.

I had warned her, I could still read the mind of a man who had sex on his mind, it didn't take vampire talent for that. He wanted my Bella.

At first she did call every night, then came the longest night when she didn't and I gave in and tried to call her. She sounded a little pissed at me, she was at a party some rich benefactor had thrown and she and Peter had been invited to attend and the people there were praising her work, saying she was a breath of fresh air in the world of fiction novels.

I apologised and let her go back to her public and tried to sleep. She warned me before she hung up that she may not be able to call for a few days, she had appointments on top of one another and several TV interviews booked.

After my shift ended, I was at a loose end. My fellow interns were all about going out together for a few drinks each night but I had always had my Bella to rush home to so had never accompanied them. Tonight it seemed like something to do to pass the long hours of loneliness.

One of the girls, Chelsea, sat beside in the bar and asked me all about myself. I had to come up with a believable version of my life thus far, explaining my obsession with modern history, particularly the early 1900's as a way to cover as to why I knew so much about that era and every decade since, and she accepted that.

"So, when is Bella back?" she asked as I handed her the drink I had ordered her.

"Six more days, I'm going crazy," I admitted.

"You should come out on Saturday with us if you have nothing better to do, we are doing this car rally type thing, Jason is writing the clues and we have to work them out and all end up at the right destination for dinner then we stay over at a guesthouse Saturday night and drive home at our leisure Sunday. We go in couples, I was going with Maggie until she broke her ankle tripping on the leg of that gurney last week. Maybe you could come with me and take her place."

It seemed like a way to fill in time so I agreed. Bella was due back Tuesday, having this weekend full would lessen my anxiety about waiting for her return. It would be a distraction.

Chelsea was quite funny, she never attempted to do anything improper so I allowed myself to relax and enjoy her company and I had lunch with her on the Thursday and Friday before our adventure.

Jason drew the short straw and had to work all weekend so Chelsea took over, and handed out the envelopes containing the clues and each car departed half an hour apart, us being the last.

Chelsea read the clues and we laughed at the obscure references we had to decipher, I was willing to bet half of the participants would end up in China or Russia or somewhere far from where the end was.

"I have the destination here in this envelope, we won't get lost," she assured me.

We stopped whenever we found a scenic spot to explore and took our time, it was quite a pleasant day and I didn't flinch or think anything of it when Chelsea grabbed my hand to pull me up a small hill to show me the view from the top. It wasn't until she leaned in and kissed me that I had any idea she was thinking things I had not considered for a single moment. I didn't kiss her back but it took a moment to realise what she was doing. I was shocked.

"Hey," I said, stepping back, holding her shoulders to steady her as my leaving left her off balance. "I'm married, you know that," I reminded her.

"Edward, I am aware of that fact and I know you love your wife, I'm not out to break you up, I just thought, well, you are here, I am here, she isn't, it doesn't have to mean anything. It's just what friends do nowadays. We can enjoy one another and go back to being just colleagues on Monday. I won't bite, you know."

"Chelsea, I said I am married. Doesn't that indicate I wouldn't be interested in being with any other woman?" I questioned. Marriage was forever in the vampire world, you didn't mate and then keep looking, or touch another vamp in that way. The only vamps who 'knew' more than one mate were those who lost theirs through annihilation and moved on after her death and the second bond was rarely as strong as the first.

Jasper was an exception, he bonded with Maria and left her once he knew her agenda and realised she was not the One, but truly, situations like that were so rare to be of no consequence. Alice was his One and she always knew it and waited until he found out for himself, but other than him, I had never met a vamp who had changed partners and I may only be a lowly human now, but my morals have not changed.

Bella is my mate, she and I will be together forever, I was just surprised how casual Chelsea considered my vows were.

"Edward, you do know this is not the 1900's right? Most couples allow one another a weekend pass, so long as they return home and keep up the mortgage payments and take the kids to soccer practice and ballet lessons , they allow each other a little 'entertainment' away from the marital bed, it doesn't have to mean anything," she huffed.

I rubbed my mouth distractedly, I had never wanted to feel another woman's lips on my own.

"I can't ever agree to anything that disgusting. I would never betray my Bella," I told her and she laughed.

"Your Bella is away for a month on the road with her agent, do you truly believe she isn't using him to satisfy her needs? Is sex between you two so amazing she would never seek a little relief elsewhere?"

I bit my lower lip, a habit I have copied from Bella, and frowned.

"I trust my wife. It's not all about sex, making love should be restricted to the person you love, however good it is."

She smirked.

"I kind of got the impression your sex life is lacking, you rush home to your Bella but you don't come in the next day whistling and smiling at everyone like some of the married doctors do when they score. Are you sure you two are compatible?"

"Of course we are, I never wanted another woman in my life. I waited for Bella and now I have her I would never jeopardise that."

"Oh loosen up, come on, the others will be at the Seaview Inn by now, we have to organise the evening's activities for them seeing I am filling in for Jason."

We drove in silence, only the songs from my iPod filled the car and everyone had worked out the clues it seemed until we did a proper roll call and found Steve and Monica missing.

"Call them, Jason wrote everyone's numbers on the list," Chelsea said as she checked dinner was ready and the tables grouped together so we could all exchange stories about how many got lost along the way and how they figured it out.

I left messages on both missing participants phones and we ate dinner. I was quiet, still shocked and annoyed. I had not expected to see behaviour like this amongst my peers.

Two of the male residents I knew were in relationships were clearly spending the night with the girls they had driven here with, and seemed to see no shame in that.

"What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over," said Miles, slapping my back as he left the dining room with Terese, a resident he had talked into accompanying him today.

Bailey and his friend Solange were almost eating off one another's faces and I frowned, Bailey's wife was almost due to give birth to their first child and he was here sowing his oats still? They left and headed upstairs and it was a relief to not have to watch.

"See Edward, not everyone has Victorian morals, why not just let go for a night?" Chelsea purred as she handed me another drink. I was counting my drinks very carefully, experience had already taught me that lesson. Three was my limit, any more and I wouldn't be in perfect control and that was essential.

I swallowed it down, anything to avoid arguing and spiralling into a lecture like some uptight father pontificating to his errant children.

Finally everyone had headed for bed and Chelsea dragged me by the hand to the small elevator and I couldn't resist, my body was curiously mellow, my resistance reduced.

I wished I could think straight but apparently I had consumed more alcohol than I thought.

"Triples," she said with a grin. "I ordered you triples, you need to relax, Edward, everything will be fine."

Triples? So I had drunk nine drinks in reality? This was not good. I could scarcely walk upright but Chelsea pulled me to my room and opened the door. Thank God it had a king sized bed, I hate ever having to fit my tall frame into a twin bed and I had feared that would be how a place like this would be furnished.

Chelsea dropped me onto the bed and went into the bathroom.

I struggled to pull off my Docs and tossed them away and wondered why she hadn't gone to her own bathroom in her own room. My brain was not keeping up, the idea she had booked just the one room for the two of us just didn't enter my head until she returned in a tiny black negligee type thing and pushed me over, climbing into my bed beside me.

"No, go away," I gasped, pushing her away as her hands tried to touch places only Bella had ever touched.

I stumbled from the bed and she was laughing and coming after me when the sudden nausea hit and my intolerance for alcohol caused my stomach to rebel and I vomited all over the floor.

"Fuck, I don't believe this!" Chelsea screamed and I tried to make it to the bathroom and gratefully gasped the toilet bowl in my arms and threw up again and again.

She had overplayed her hand, maybe men who drank regularly could handle nine shots by 'my age' but my lack of experience and delicate stomach meant I had no chance.

When I awoke, I was still curled on the cold tiled floor and the bed was empty. A housekeeper was cleaning the floor and once I showered and dressed, I guess I should have been unsurprised to find myself the only one still here. The others had left already and now I was stranded God knows where, in a guesthouse that no longer welcomed my patronage, alone in a strange town.

I was annoyed but it could have been so much worse, what if I could have kept down those drinks? Could I have had the dexterity to fight her off? Would I have even tried? I think I would have but as more alcohol was processed through my system, I would have become drunker before starting to sober up. It was a valuable lesson, Edward Cullen will stick to vitamin water from this point onwards.

Our two missing participants showed up around lunchtime and I went home with them, trying to ignore their whispered conversation between themselves about the fun they had indulged in last night, and they tried to work out ways to keep seeing one another behind their partners backs as I pretended to sleep in the backseat. Times had changed, human couplings were much less exclusive than when I was a boy.

X~x~X

Bella's POV

Becoming a published author was a dream come true. Edward was still at home when I sent my first three copies off to three small publishers but after he started at medical school, I sent dozens of copies off to every publisher in the phone book. They were returned in quick succession, dozens of REJECT stamps marring their covers.

I didn't give up, I slipped the pages into a new cover, put them in a fresh mailer and adressed it to the next company on my list.

Peter was the only one who was even slightly interested and only after he requested a selection of photos of myself, suitable to put on the back of the dust jacket sleeve. His company was small and independent but he had a good reputation for treating his writers fairly and doing his best to get their books noticed, and he seemed to have a lot of connections. I didn't know at the time that was because he slept around a lot and the women in high places that he had bedded were the ones pushing his authors novels.

Had I had somebody like Carlisle to ask, I'm sure I would not have ventured out into the world so ignorant and unsophisticated, imagining my book was good enough to stand by itself.

Peter made it clear the first day on the road that there were dues to be paid and I wasn't aware at first what form these dues took. I was thinking he wanted a higher percentage of commission on sales, but that night when we stayed at the first motel, he made his price clear.

I pleaded painful menstrual cramps and he backed off, apparently not a man who enjoyed bloodplay of any sort so I wondered how long I could drag this excuse out. I was confident once I got to know him I would be able to impress upon him that was not part of the deal. I was not that desperate and my novel was already published.

I wanted my words out there because they were good, not because some man would use my desire to be published to gain sexual favors from me.

My 'period' lasted two weeks, that was as long as I thought it would be even slightly possible to use that excuse and by then, I felt I did have some control over Peter. He was no where near as friendly as he had been but my book was being picked up and critics liked it, so he was torn now whether to simply cut his losses with me personally and just grasp onto his share of the income it was generating, or what.

"I'm not sleeping with you," I yelled for the tenth time as he tried to push his way into my current motel bedroom.

He had been drinking during dinner and was half cut but still, that was no excuse. I've been drunk plenty of times and never done anything I wouldn't do sober, so I am wary of the whole 'but I was drunk' excuse.

Doesn't cut it with me.

I stamped on his foot and slammed my door closed and locked it when he withdrew said foot with a yelp of pain and a string of curse words.

Peter was surprised when one of his associates rang to tell him about the party. It was big time, and several names we all knew would be there and the host was keen to meet me.

Me, Isabella Swan, a nobody from Forks, Washington although now of New York. I could hardly claim it as 'home' we had been there less than two years.

I tried to call Edward but his phone was off, so when he finally called me, I was mid party and deep in conversation with one of my favorite authors so I may have been a little short. This whole world was fascinating but scary and if Peter decided to dump me and not sign me up for another novel, I didn't think I would care much. I kind of thought of writing as something you did alone at home and that was it, you sent it away, it was accepted or rejected, and then published. I had no idea how many roadtrips were involved, and now I was being informed I was to appear on three talk shows to discuss my novel.

My nerves were at an all time high and I could barely swallow sips of water for days, food was definitely off the menu, I would spend my entire life in the bathroom if I attempted to eat with this churning stomach.

I guess the interviews went well, I didn't faint or puke or say anything embarrassing. Edward told me on the phone to pretend I was just talking to the host and forget the people watching out there, maybe they all had another show to watch, maybe they had lives that didn't involve sitting staring at the box in the corner. Maybe nobody at all was watching. Somehow that helped and I relaxed and talked like I would have to Esme or Alice and the time passed and it was done. I was almost sorry when the last interview wound up, I was enjoying myself and the host of this talkshow was a funny man who had me in stitches so I had no time to even think about being self conscious or blushing.

Coming home was all I could think about. A whole month with no Edward, well, it had not been easy and it was only when we neared my apartment that I realised the whole 'period' excuse had made me overlook the truth. I had not had a period in weeks. Maybe two or three weeks prior to going had been my last and so I tried to puzzle out what that meant.

I looked in my diary and saw the red X , seven whole weeks ago.

I checked again, and asked Peter to stop at a drug store.

Edward was at work so I did the test and held my breath. This would be amazing, I longed to have a baby with him and he would be so surprised and happy. I was fairly sure he would be happy. This baby would make the whole being human thing worthwhile for him.

I knew he had regrets, one could not fail to read in his eyes that he missed being the superhero he had been before, and adjusting to a human life had not been easy for him

I wondered about the best way to tell him, leave the test stick out? Put it at his place at the table? Wrap it and give it to him as a gift?

The door opened and I flew into his embrace.

He looked pale, and thinner and worried as hell about something but I pushed everything aside.

"Edward, I'm pregnant!" I joyfully announced and he smiled the first proper genuine smile he has as a human being.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N for the couple of readers who didnt understand, neither Edward nor Bella remember anything about Deacon. Bella was dazzled, Ed thought the pregnancy was terminated in the first trimester to save Bella's life.**

The CEO

Chapter 13

EPOV

I was utterly and completely torn by Bella's news. It was truly the best and worst thing to happen to us. Best because I was giving her a child and she was so excited about that. Worst because a human child meant that was it, we had to remain human forever now. The small, hankering thought that one day we could return to the Cullen's and join their coven again if anything happened to us, was now gone. I had clung to that, almost wished the day would come when one of us would develop some health issue that necessitated us being changed. It was not solely because of the lacklustre human sex, I was a constant ball of worry, hating having to leave Bella for a second, thinking all day as I worked, maybe these accidents that happened to my patients could be happening to her, unknown to me, right now.

I sent her texts constantly and she would turn her phone off in self defense and lecture me when I got home.

We could never abandon a child of our own and now our fates were sealed, or so I assumed.

Bella wanted a scan from the get go, wanting to see the baby, and I agreed because I needed assurance it had settled in her uterus, not in a tube, waiting to grow and split that tube and kill my Bella. The baby was almost like an enemy, unseen but capable of wreaking destruction on the woman I love.

Every pregnant patient that came in with unexplained bleeding, high blood pressure, any of the million and one pregnancy complications left me in a state of dread that this would happen to my wife as well.

How could anyone do this and risk their life so easily? I had no idea how risky pregnancy was to a woman or I would have probably made sure it could not happen to Bella.

My colleagues all slapped my back and congratulated me , though why was a mystery, all I had done was jeopardized her life and put her in a very precarious position. A blood clot, a stroke, anything could happen to take her from me now, and she was so completely oblivious. Chatting about names and baby buggies and buying clothes and toys and things babies slept in, like it was something 100% positive to celebrate.

My sleep factor dropped vastly as I brooded and worried.

To think I had put myself in a funk over another woman kissing me, now that was such a tiny concern I never even thought about it any more.

Bella's book was selling well and made it to the top ten best seller's list but no higher, once it claimed the tenth spot sales started to decline and it slid down again and virtually disappeared, not the raging success I had hoped for her. If only Oprah would like it and feature it in her book club, but no. Peter had sent her minions a parcel of free copies but the letter of rejection had arrived back within days. Bella's female lead character was not strong and independent enough to appeal to Oprah.

Bella seemed to have lost interest in writing, all I ever saw her do on her laptop now was return emails to Alice, and that took up half the day as my ex sister got as involved and excited about the coming human as my wife did.

I was relieved when Bailey told me he had nursed the same worries when his wife was pregnant and everything had turned out fine, his son had arrived with very little drama, weighing nine pounds and settling in at home quickly. Their sex life had now resumed and he was ashamed of his affair with Solange and kept seeking me out to ask advice . Should he tell his wife? I didn't see how that could help, she was tied down at home, away from her work colleagues, therefore no support system, with a small human who depended on her to keep him alive 24/7, surely her life was stressful enough?

Morally I had no clue, I merely pointed out had he done the decent thing in the first place and stayed home that weekend, temptation would never have gotten the better of him and he wouldn't be suffering now. I quite liked watching him suffer, it was no more than he deserved.

Both male residents who had played away that weekend had split with their partners over their betrayals, one had chosen to leave his wife and move in with the girl he had cheated with, the other had been unceremoniously tossed out of his home when his wife found out.

Our formerly happy atmosphere was quite strained, with all the marital woes and Chelsea was the only one who seemed untouched by the drama. She was still open and friendly and helpful but she never made any references to that night or the kiss other than to pull me aside the Monday after and quickly apologise for being out of line, and a little drunk, and she assured me it would never happen again, so I thanked her for that and I gathered it was history, in the past, no need to dwell at all. She was helpful and willing in all I asked of her with my patients and never stepped over that invisible boundary so I knew I could move on and forget everything as well. She made a mistake, it was not that unusual it seemed, and she was mature enough to not let it invade our work space. We were friends again, still, nothing more. Was there any point telling Bella and having her hate this girl? Nothing more would ever happen.

Gossip was rife on our ward, everyone 'knew' about everyone else's shenanigans at the guesthouse, and I was glad to not have been an active participant.

Three weeks later Bella came in to the hospital so I could see the scan being done, I would have liked to do it myself but I didn't have that kind of clout here yet. Dr Sidney was happy to oblige though, so I led Bella through and held her hand as he moved the transducer over her still flat belly.

"There it is, good heartbeat, a little fast, but maybe Mommy is a little agitated? Just relax, Mrs Cullen, and we will measure for date of conception. There, I am getting four months, does that agree with your calculations?"

Bella frowned and I stepped closer to the screen. The baby was indeed four months gestation even though we had assumed only half that. Bella must have bled when her periods were due and not known she was pregnant at first. It happened, it was nothing to worry about, but it was a little strange her symptoms, like morning sickness, had not kicked in earlier and given us a clue.

"Well, that is going to shorten the pregnancy," she said with a smile, happy to be further along than imagined.

"It looks like quite a robust fetus, it's moving a lot," Dr Sidney stated, watching the screen with a frown. Bella gasped quietly as a particularly hard punch hit her belly and he laughed.

"You can't be feeling much if anything, surely, it's still tiny," he said and she bit her lip and shrugged.

"I think you should return in two weeks for another scan, I'm just slightly concerned how active this fetus is. It's nothing to be concerned about, just strange. I must get this machine overhauled and checked, the movements could not be that frequent," he sighed and shook his head, as he checked the printout.

Bella escaped to the Ladies room to relieve the pressure in her bladder, having drunk the required fluid to prop her uterus up with her bladder for the scan and I snuck a look at her chart. Dr Sidney had left a lot of notes and it seemed he was concerned the fetus was abnormal. The heart was beating much too fast, the skeletal system was too advanced for the size of the baby, and the movements too frequent and maybe too strong, question mark.

I frowned at his notes and returned the chart and decided to call Carlisle.

BPOV

God, there is almost a sexual pleasure in going from a vastly filled bladder to an empty one, it was such a relief to sit and pee and pee until it was all gone. Much as I enjoyed the scan and seeing our baby, it was great to rid my body of that massive balloon filled with liquid, I had real fears of wetting myself on the table when he had repeatedly scanned my belly, over and over, more than anyone expected by the look of the line up of preggie ladies waiting their turns impatiently, painfully, no doubt.

At least mine was done now and I could relax. I heard a couple of ladies enter as I sat there making sure to have expelled every drop and almost screamed at what they were saying.

"So, Chelsea, fess up, Edward fucked you at the guesthouse and now he pretends nothing happened? I warned you, I told you married men were a risk. They either want more but only in some sleazy secret, hidden relationship in cheap motels if you are lucky, more likely in the on call rooms, or they have to convince themselves it was not their doing, like they had no control, the girl raped them virtually. Forget him, I could hook you up with Tim's brother, he is a scream and safely divorced already."

"I haven't completely given up. When we kissed on the hilltop, I knew he was surprised and he did give me the expected talk about his fucking wife Bella and how he would never betray her, but I can tell when a man is keen for a little extracurricular activity."

"Course you can, you've had enough experience," the first girl laughed."So, what was he like? Tell me all."

"Larger than I expected, to be honest. He doesn't look like a man packing a Magnum but you ought to have a grab of his package and see what he has to offer."

"So, what's your plan?"

"Sit back, be there, be his friend and wait. She's knocked up, you know that means the shop will be closed shortly and he will be looking elsewhere, they all do. Look at Bailey, he was so desperate after his wife was put on bedrest and no hokeypokey, he couldn't resist screwing Ange, though Edward had better not go all Bailey on me and be crying about it later."

"Baileys a wuss, he never cheated before. Look at Edward, he must have had an amazing sex life even in High School. Damn, I would've dragged him off to the janitor's closet if he was in my High School."

"You and every other girl. He's fucking gorgeous, isn't he? Goddamn it, I hate how the really pretty ones get snapped up early, before they use their looks to reel in a sexfest with us and the nurses. He could be banging every female here."

"How do you know he isn't?"

"Good point. Well, he will soon be fucking my brains out, that's all I care about. Keep your hands off him, by the way, you may have hm next if you behave while I borrow him first."

I sat there in shock. Edward had been pale and withdrawn at first when I got home from the book tour, and the purple bags under his eyes indicated he hadn't slept well, arrogantly I had assumed it was my absence that had stopped him sleeping.

He seemed uptight still but he was concerned about the pregnancy, and his every thought seemed to be concentrated on my surviving the birth, like it was a long shot at best. I wanted him to be there for the scan to reassure him everything was going fine, and now it seemed I was mistaken about what was really troubling him. He was not the kind of man to mess up and forget it, it must be eating him alive.

God, I had to talk to Alice.

I heard the door close behind 'Chelsea' and her friend and washed my hands and walked out a few minutes later. Edward offered to drive me home but I insisted I would be fine, and he kissed me in a rather desperate way that I was getting used to since my return. Duh, there was the clue. He kissed me now, every single time, like it could be for the last time. I had thought that was the whole 'the baby inside could kill you' bit, clearly it was more the 'if you find out about Chelsea, you will leave' desperation.

I drove to the apartment and my first instinct was to pack and leave and save him the worry of me finding out, he would know I knew when he saw the half empty closet, but midway I decided that was the coward's way out. Maybe I owed him a chance to explain. God knows Peter had tried his utmost to get into my bed on the road trip, maybe Edward was just not as strongly comitted to us now he was human. As a vampire, it had seemed like an unbreakable bond despite the whole Tanya thing, the way Alice explained, emotionally Edward would never be able to cheat on me, but now, he was merely a man with all men's weaknesses.

I called Alice, something I was not supposed to do but I needed a friendly voice on the end of the phone.

"Bella, oh, I should have expected this call. It's freaky, not knowing with you and Edward now. He was just talking to Carlisle, the poor boy is so worried."

"About what, Alice?" I asked.

"About the baby. You know how Edward is, everything is a possibility for disaster. That man will never relax until he is dead, I swear."

"Alice, did he mention anything to Carlisle about a weekend trip away while I was on tour?"

"Oh, that," she said, flatly. "You know?"

"Yes, I know. I overheard the girl in question talking about it. How could he do that to me, Alice? Do you think I should leave? I have no idea what to do for the best."

"You would leave Edward over a kiss that he didn't even return?" Alice asked, amazed.

"It was more than a kiss, he slept with her," I informed her.

"Bella, that's not true. I can still detect when a person is lying and he said she slipped him a Mickey Finn or two and got him blathered but when she tried to seduce him, he pushed her away and lost his lunch on the floor, and spent the night being intimate with the porcelain God."

"Nothing happened? He was so pale and quiet when I returned but I didn't give him a chance to speak. I told him I was pregnant and he seemed to move to being completely obsessed with the pregnancy from that moment."

"That's true, he now thinks the night in the guest house was nothing worth mentioning. He is new at this, Bella. He hasn't been a human man long. Vampires never have to worry, with their strength and ability to move so fast, we can escape any person trying anything with us, or simply control their mood or dazzle them to forgetting. They toddle off and go about their business, not sure what they were even about to try. It can be fun."

"So, what do I do? He truly didn't cheat?"

"She slipped him three triples instead of singles, took him to his room, got glammed up in her sexy gear, came back and got into his bed, he pushed her away, got up, tossed his cookies on the floor and spend the night in the bathroom. She left and slept with some friends that had the adjoining bedroom, and left before he woke up the next day. End of story. He was not at fault except for not realising what she was up to. I'm sure he will explain if you ask him but he didn't cheat, Bella. If he cheated, he would have ripped himself apart and lay on a fire and burned himself to ashes, you know Edward."

"He's not a vampire now Alice, there are easier ways to die. A simple overdose, he has access to drugs don't forget. God, why are we talking about Edward killing himself."

"Because I am all kinds of a fool," a velvety voice interrupted and I hung the phone up and turned to my husband.

"Bella, I should have told you myself. All I can beg is that you believe me, I didn't do anything wrong except get drunk. I didn't even intend for that to happen."

"Tell me everything," I ordered and lay back on the sofa and put my arm across my eyes.

Edward told me the same story Alice had and all about the shock kiss on the hill and I told him how I knew, and what Chelsea's plans were now.

He shook his head.

"I don't understand humans. I told her I was married and that I love you. She knows I have nothing to give her, why is she persisting? I just don't get it."

"Some human women see it as a challenge, to get a man to cheat on his wife. It makes that girl feel like she has power over the wife, and some men are weak and go along with it, it feeds their egos to know another woman wants them as well."

"I hate humans," Edward sighed.

"That's only about half of them, Edward, the other half are like vampires and mate for life and never cheat on their spouse. There are good humans as well. Often something has happened to girls like Chelsea, some man has cheated on her or let her down and she feels the need to even things up by bringing down a good man. You are a good man, Edward, and I am proud that you pushed her away and left that bed.

I know you still hanker for vampire sex, and wish it could be like it was in the meadow that day, but this is it, this is all we have now. We have to make it as good as it can be. God, sometimes I almost wish we had not made love that day. If we didn't compare what we have now to that, I think we would consider our sex life rather amazing. We do whatever we want, for as long and as often as we want, we try new things, on a human scale we have a pretty damned awesome time, it's just that one darn session that's engraved in our heads that makes this seem so much lesser.

We can't have that back, that was a vampire thing, and we are not vampires. Maybe you made the wrong choice, maybe you should have been changed back and changed me as your mate. Maybe I should have let you kill Tanya. I know that's a horrendous thing to say but she stole our future. I wanted to be your vampire mate and spend eternity with you. I know you wanted the same."

"I did, Bella. God knows, I still do. But we have a baby now, a human baby, that can never happen."

"God, Edward, I never thought about that. We could never leave him and go join the Cullen's, could we? Even when he grows up? We are stuck here now."

I decided we were on such a downer, that maybe it was time to explain Peter and his actions and Edward sighed and pulled on his hair.

"I knew that bastard wanted you. What do we need to do, Bella? There must be a way to let these humans know we are taken, and have no interest in playing around with them. Maybe we need to get tattoo's on our foreheads saying "Fuck off, out of bounds."

"I think the best idea is never be alone with either Peter or Chelsea. And talk constantly about our marriage and connection and make it clear we are devoted to one another, surely they will give up if only because they get sick of hearing about our wonderful spouse. Be careful not to accept drinks from her, Edward, she knows now not to overdo it but that doesn't mean she won't still try getting your guard down that way. We need to be together as much as possible, and you need to avoid any place at work where she and you are alone."

"Good advice, I will be alert now and be sure to stay on guard around her."

The upside of the pregnancy was Bella's much increased libido, and our sex life was improving out of sight. It would never be what it was, but all the same, she was right, by human standards it was pretty amazing.

Now she rarely wrote, she met me for lunch and we often found a spot away from any eyes in the hospital gardens and had sex against trees or on the grass, it was fun and different and we were finding ways to be happier with what we were.

I have to say now I could see I had been wrong about resisting changing Bella, but too late.

The day was dragging by and I was relieved to look out of the window and see my wife's brunette hair shining in the sun , it's red highlights glinting beautifully, as she walked towards the main entrance. It made me smile with anticipation.

"So, can we grab lunch?" Chelsea asked, as she tidied the desk I was leaning on.

"Nope, my Bella is here!" I answered excitedly. I don't know why Chelsea still asks me out because I refuse every time, but whatever.

Bella grabbed on to me and I swung her up and kissed her lips and felt her heart race faster at my touch.

"Food or love?" I asked, suddenly eating her was far more appealing than eating lunch.

We headed to the very back of the back gardens and I lay her down and disappeared under the full skirt of the frock she was wearing. No panties, that was good.

I had hardly started licking her inside her folds when she grabbed at me and pulled me up.

"No, Edward, just get inside me now, I can't wait."

Music to my ears. I sank my shaft inside her and grabbed her ass to pull her up closer and started thrusting, long and hard, and gasped in more air as she launched her body closer to mine each plunge.

"Fuck!" I yelled suddenly, as something sharp and powerful hit my abdomen.

I pulled out and sat up and looked in horror as a small foot like protuberance appeared inside the skin of her belly.

"How can he be so strong already?" I asked her, placing a hand on top and having it forced away as he kicked me savagely.

"Shit, Bella, I don't think this is normal. Come see if we can find Dr Sidney, I think we need to put that scan forward to today."

It had only been ten days since the last so there should be little change but that was a myth. The baby was nearly twice the size and was turning and thrashing wildly and Bella looked green as it refused to settle.

I stepped forward and pushed the transducer away for a moment and rubbed her belly, singing quietly to the nudger until he settled.

Dr Sidney scowled at me wasting his precious time but our baby was obviously very stressed and needed comfort. Once he settled, I stood back and allowed him to continue. He pushed across her belly, over and over, frowning with intense anxiety clear on his face.

"Edward, I need to talk to you, outside," he said and I kissed Bella.

"I'll be right back," I whispered. She looked scared and I would not leave her for any longer than necessary.

"You have to tell me what he says," she said, begging me.

"I will, my love, don't worry."

The nurse sat beside her and took her hand and that told me more than even being summoned outside had. Something was very wrong.

"Edward, the baby has no heartbeat," he explained and I frowned.

"It was so active until I calmed him, what do you mean?"

"When I resumed the scan, there was simply no heartbeat. This means the fetus has died and I have to say, in this case it was probably a blessing. That fetus was all wrong, Edward. I intend doing the autopsy myself, there's never been another fetus in my experience who doubled his growth in ten days at four and a half months gestation. And it was abnormally strong, we should not have felt it's movements yet , not for weeks more. Yet it could kick the transducer off her belly for a good six inches. It was not normal, Edward. Nothing remotely like normal. I will do the termination today and carry out the autopsy tonight, I'm that intrigued."

I put my hands into my trouser pockets to still their shaking or at least hide it from him.

"You are sure it's dead? Just like that? He died during the scan?" I checked.

"She, not that it matters, but it was a girl. She simply lost her heartbeat so she must be dead. I'm sorry. I am calling in a few men who will be fascinated to examine this fetus, the post mortem will be well attended. Maybe we will have some answers and be able to advise you two what went wrong, why it was so strong. It was almost like another species," he murmured to himself.

"I want to tell Bella myself and I am taking her home to do that. Give us one night, I will bring her back for the termination in the morning. Say nine o'clock?"

He nodded and sighed and started scrolling through his cellphone.

"Derek, my boy, this is one you will be interested in. No, no, I'm sure it's not normal and it's amazing, the increased growth rate is terrifying, it's a shame it died today, we would have been studying it for years had it made it to term. Be here at eight am tomorrow and be ready to be stunned, my man."

I waved at him and nodded when he repeated to be back by 9am.

"What's happened, Edward?" Bella asked as I sat beside her.

"Have you felt it move again?" I asked. She nodded and put her hands on her belly, as if they could protect the baby.

"He thinks it's dead, because the heart stopped beating. Bella, I don't think it's human. We have to get out of here or he will kill it. Just play along, look like I haven't told you anything, and we will go to Carlisle on the next flight but don't mention anything to them. They expect us back in the morning."

We walked to the admin desk and I paid for the scan and made the appointment for 9am the next day that we would not be keeping and told my boss I had to go home, my wife had just had some bad news.

We were on a plane three hours later.


	14. Chapter 14

The CEO

Chapter 14

Carlisle seemed somewhat troubled and evasive on the ride to their house and I wondered what that was all about. It was so annoying, I used to know more than I wanted to as a vampire, I could scan any brain and know exactly what the person was thinking and Carlisle's mind had always been intriguing.

He was welcoming and polite but reserved and he happily handed my wife over to Esme to chat while he took me to his study. In every house, his study is always set out the same. I sat and he was obviously finding it hard to begin what he needed to say.

He started with short bursts of news, what had happened since I left, what a tragic end Tanya's first mate had met, how her second one was so much more suitable.

"Edward, what I did I thought was the best for everyone. Bella could have died, had Esme not sucked out the venom when the baby bit her..."

"What are you talking about? What baby bit Bella? When?"

"The fetus I supposedly removed in her last pregnancy...although she was barely three months pregnant, the baby was full term or close enough and he came out fighting. He bit his mother and she was badly affected by the venom. Esme saved her from changing, as we knew you didn't want Bella to be one of us. That left us with a problem. The baby was viable. Esme and Rose took it away so I wouldn't euthanize it. I knew nothing about babies born to a human and one of us, and he was very strong and quite vicious almost, I assumed we would have to take care of it quickly. I intended doing just that but the women decided they knew better and they took him.

He's calmed down a lot, he is now quite placid and we were having a family meeting last night, to discuss how to tell you about him and what the consequences would be.

I don't know how he will react to you both seeing you are human. When I say he is now placid, he still goes into a sort of rage if a human strays too close. I don't know what to do for the best, to be honest. Esme and I are willing to continue raising him for you but it will mean a complete isolation from humans for the foreseeable future."

I was stunned.

"Bella surely doesn't know about this child?" I asked.

"No, no, she has no memory of the birth, I did make sure of that small thing for her."

"And the child is here, now?"

"He's with Rose, in the guesthouse at the far back of the property."

"And he is...full vampire?"

"I have examined his DNA, he is mostly vampire but has a small amount of human genes. I can't say that's how it will remain, he changes constantly. He communicates silently, inside our heads. We can hear him and we answer him out loud, with the spoken word, but so far he hasn't made any attempt to speak back this way."

"So, do you think this pregnancy is going to be the same? But that means the child is almost ready to be born. How can that be?"

Carlisle shrugged.

"How can two different species have a child in the first place? I will examine Bella and see how far along the pregnancy really is. Forget about human gestation, Edward, this seems to be quite unrelated. How has she been?"

"Fine. We expected to be almost three months along but I saw the images on the scan, she is almost full term. You have to deliver her and protect Bella."

"So, are you saying you want us to raise this child as well? Rose would be so happy to take this baby for you, she is always helping with Deacon."

I stilled. Deacon. It had a name.

"Is he normal, I guess is the question?"

"I can't answer that, I have never seen a vampire baby. Vampires are created not born. He's growing, he's learning, he walks and runs and eats, mainly blood, we recently weaned him to animal blood alone and he has adjusted. He sleeps, though, that's the one human trait he has taken from his mother."

"I want to see him," I insisted. Bella was going to freak. The baby within was scaring the pants off her, how would she react to the one already here? I had to see him and assess him for myself.

"Edward, it could be dangerous," Carlisle warned.

"I think I will take my chances. Now first, come see Bella and tell us what will happen."

The scan images in 3D were sort of comforting, the baby was clearly close to full term and she was moving more gently now her size reduced the area she had to play in.

I watched and couldn't help but smile, she looked so like her mother.

A buzzing started around the room and Esme held her hands to her head.

"Is that her?" she asked.

I felt so left out as Rose and Carlisle grinned and my erstwhile father agreed, it was her. My daughter was communicating with them before birth.

"What's she saying?" I asked eagerly.

"She is telling us it's time," Alice said, clapping her hands.

"Is it urgent or can we have a little time to ourselves, I have something to discuss with Bella," I said, looking at Carlisle.

"Of course, no hurry, take your time."

They disappeared and I laughed. To me it had always been normal to move that fast, now I felt like my eyes were playing tricks on me as they were there then gone.

"Freaky, hey," Bella said.

"Disconcerting, certainly, from our point of view it was completely natural. Now I see what it was like for you."

"So, what do we need to discuss? Not baby names I am guessing."

"Bella, last time you were pregnant.."

She frowned and looked pained, and upset.

"I was pregnant before? What happened?"

"Carlisle saved your life by terminating the pregnancy at three months.."

"He wants to do that again?" she asked, her lip trembling.

"No, Bella, the baby survived. He was full term and Rose and Esme have been raising him. He was quite untamed at birth and he bit you and began the change. Esme sucked the venom out because I told my father I didn't want that future for you. Now I think we need to decide. I presume our daughter will be like our son and we can only be with them if we change ourselves. The other alternative is that we let the children be raised here by my parents and we leave and never see either of them again. Maybe when they are mature adults, they will have some control but it could take decades. Tanya's first partner never managed to resist the bloodlust and Carlisle had to...end him. She has a new partner now and he has taken the change much better. There's no rule how any vampire will be. Some are mature from the get go, some are wild and animalistic for a year or more but settle down. Some never do. It's all a matter of chance."

"The baby, babies, will need us, I don't think there is a decision. Maybe I won't make a good vampire, maybe your father will have to end me, but we have to try. Can he do it soon? I don't want someone else raising our children."

"Are you sure? This is normally a once only deal, there's never been a vamp to human conversion before and I can't say I could see any vampire wanting to do it, to be honest. Humans are so slow and sluggish and eating food... I just know now even being a blood drinking vampire that drank from humans was better than this. I want us to undergo the change but I have nothing to lose. If vampire's lose their souls then mine is long gone. Yours is still intact and that concerns me."

"Edward, what are you suggesting?"

"I could become a vampire again and you could stay human. I would raise our children and find you when they are ready and able to interact around humans, and then we could all live close, if not actually together."

"But that could take decades and I could be eighty before you come to me."

"Bella, your age would never bother me. I love you, not your appearance. I don't think you realise, vampires love what is on the inside, not the physical appearances. We are not shallow like humans."

"You are already grouping yourself back with them," she sighed. "If you get changed then so do I, promise me? It's what I want, all I could bear. I could never be happy knowing you and my own children were out there, probably all wanting to drain me dry. I have to try this and become their proper mother."

I nodded, secretly delighted because that's what I wanted too, but she had to have the choice.

Funnily enough, there was never any choices to be made.

Carlisle took Bella into a makeshift operating theatre and I held her hand. All was well, calm, my father was explaining how things would go, to us as well as our daughter and Bella suddenly screamed in a terrifying way and curled into a ball.  
"Carlisle, what's happening?" I yelled.

"The baby accidentally bit her cord and I think the venom has raced through it into Bella. We have to do this now."

My wife writhed and screamed and it took us all, including Emmett and Jasper, to hold her flat and still enough for Carlisle to do what was basically a c section, though the cut was vastly longer, and he pulled our daughter into the world, and handed her to my mother.

I was about to protest when she opened her tiny pink rosebud lips and tried to bite me as she flayed about in Esme's grip.

"Another wild one, come on, little girl, that's your Daddy," I heard my mother say soothingly to the wildcat in her arms.

She took the infant from the room and Bella clearly had not seen our daughter at all, all she saw was what she felt, hellfire as her bloodstream filled with burning venom.

Some changes are easy and calm, some are horrendous and painful. Watching Bella scream and hearing her beg for death was more than I could stand.

Carlisle told me to go, and promised he would not leave her side for a second. He had sealed her wound and she had a faint pink scar already, and it was fading rapidly, far quicker than last time.

The venom was clearly fully in her system.

Jasper stayed, as did Alice.

Rose hurried back to be with my son and I walked slowly, so slowly, behind her as she flew by in a flash of light. Emmett was with me, playing body guard. It was weird, needing a body gurad to protect me from an infant, but this was no ordinary child.

Rose stood across the far side of the room and held a toddler sized infant in her arms, feeding him a bottle of red blood.

"Maybe if he's feeding, you can get close enough to touch him," she said, but she looked worried. The baby watched my every move and Emmett laughed.

"What?" I asked.

"He's surprised, he saw you as different, like you were before, in his mind. He is having trouble recognising you as his father. He's seen your image in all of our heads and we all remember you as you were, not this. Except Alice. hey, that's why he struggles whenever Alice shows him images of the two of you. He probably thinks she is mixing up things and showing him the wrong father."

They laughed, I cringed. How strange to let my son down by being too ordinary, too human.

I walked closer, Emmett keeping up a constant commentary.

"He's excited, he wants to feel your skin. He's calm though, in control. Just touch him. He likes that though he says your skin is hot, too hot."

I lifted my hand back off him. He felt freezing cold and I immediately thought of Bella and the first time we made love . She had liked the feel of my coldness inside her body. I shook my head, that seemed strange now. Surely that could not have felt good?

Human women did not put ice cubes or Popsicles up in that area, surely? Wouldn't the coldness numb everything? Bella had certainly felt and enjoyed my coldness in the meadow so maybe it was erotic in some strange way.

Deacon held his hands out to me and bit on the silicon teat of the bottle, holding it in his mouth with no hands.

"It's safe, it's okay," Emmett said, walking to stand close to me, ready to instantly whisk the baby from me if he needed to.

I took my son and held him at arm's length and examined his body. He was naked and just draped in a thin wrap, and it fell to the ground. He appeared to be about the size of a two year old.

"Hello there, son," I said and he frowned and looked at me with frustration.

"He's upset you can't hear him," Emmett translated.

The boy reached out as I sat him in my arms more comfortably, and he traced a finger down my nose and across my cheeks and he smiled. He had many of my features and he seemed to find the fact he was like me, or I was like him, pleasing.

"Dada," he said and Rose and Emmett both stood there in shock.

"He spoke, Edward! That's the first word he has ever said."

Emmett hugged his wife and kissed her and my son kissed me.

With fangs.

It was strangely different to last time when Carlisle changed me. This time it was if my blood stream was full of semi frozen blood and it slid around my system and made me shiver.

Rose gasped and grabbed Deacon from me, Emmett took me in his arms and lay me upstairs on a bed.

"You want me to let this happen, right?" he said. My teeth chattered but I nodded. It may as well happen now, I was no use to Bella.

My body slowly lost all feeling as the extreme coldness took over every inch of me and I fell into a state of semi consciousness. It was almost pleasant even, no burning, no pain, just the feeling you get if you lay in the snow and your mind tricks you that you feel quite comfortable and you end up with hypothermia. That happened to me once as a human child and my mind started flicking images through my brain, like a slide show. I was just a lad, playing in the sun, human, happy, watched over lovingly by my human parents. I looked at my mother. She was extremely beautiful and her hair was the exact shade mine was. Her eyes were green and shining and proud. My father was smoking a pipe and watching me play, sort of half grinning in a way I now remembered. He had never been a very demonstrative father but I could see he did love me.

I aged slowly and the teenage me made me cringe. So girlish, so pretty. My hands were so slim and smooth, like some hand models. My face was still childishly chubby but so pretty. My hair was longish and my eyes were glittering with laughter. Oh, it was Christmas, we were around a tree, and I was opening my gift. My mother was hugging me next thing, and I saw the wooden tray I had made her at school. She loved it and was thanking me. I didn't get to see my gift, I was suddenly standing at a window, watching a group of soldiers signing up new recruits and my heart was beating faster. I wanted to run out and join them. It seemed like the best kind of future and I envied the boys who were a year older than me, as they left the arms of their crying mothers and sweethearts and followed behind the soldiers, leaving our village and my sight.

Then I was drifting and could look down and see myself going through the first change. Carlisle was tearing at his hair, unsure if he had done the right thing. His face looked haunted and his eyes were almost filled with tears, they looked so distressed.

I wanted to hurry through this part but all the same, I was shocked when I realised I was in control. I went to the day in the meadow and replayed it over and over. Bella and I would experience that esquisite pleasure again, of that I was sure.

I had no idea how much time passed, but finally the images stopped and instead I was watching the tiny particles of dust floating in the air around me and my hands moved.

I touched my face, it felt normal, not cold nor hot. Just normal.

Emmett stood beside me, expectantly and I was suddenly standing beside him.

"Hey Edward, welcome back."

I swayed and he grabbed at me but I was steady before his hand even reached me.

"Bella, how is Bella?" I asked.

"She's fine, did you see her before when she came to see you?"

"She's not...wild?" I checked.

He laughed. "She's a little feisty, she has taken over both of the children and is making up for lost time with Deacon and keeping that baby girl all to herself. Rose says she is going to take her down if she doesn't share and let them hold her too."

I laughed. Bella the mother tiger.

"Edward," I heard and looked up.

My Lord, she had always been beautiful but she was amazing. Her hair was black and luminous, her eyes were shiny and green.

Green?

"She chose green eyes, to match yours. She didn't like the red," Rose added.

I was confused.

"Contact lenses already?"

"No, I decided if I was a vampire I wanted green eyes. Yours are green too," she said, drifting to my side like a fairy almost. Her dress was long and wispy and looked amazing. It had little shape or structure, just sort of hung about her body like a cloud almost.

Her skin was paler than before but somehow it just suited her.

I was suddenly in her embrace.

"Edward, we need to ...hunt," she said and I knew immediately that this hunting trip had nothing to do with animals, unless you counted me as her prey.

"Be back soon," I smirked.

We sort of ran, drifted, arm in arm into the forest behind the guest house and small pieces of fabric fluttered by me in the breeze.

I was a little confused until I turned to see if Bella had noticed, but once I saw her standing before me, completely naked, all thoughts left my mind.

"Bella," I said, in a voice I had to get used to again.

I was inside her, she was around me, and the sensation was amazing. There were no human words to describe the difference between human sex and vampire sex.

Maybe think of eating a plate of dust then a plate of ambrosia, the food of the Gods. That was how different it was.

There was no need to seek any area to stimulate because our entire bodies felt the same, just totally sensitive and aware of our touch and when we climaxed, it was with every single cell, from our hair to our toenails.

"Holy Mother of God," Bella screamed.

I jerked repeatedly, not wanting this to stop, my body buzzed and tingled and shook with intense pleasure.

Suddenly the day in the meadow was nothing, not worth a single thought. It had been so pale compared to this coupling. And the human sex was laughable. Why had we even bothered?

Bella was upon me again and I lay back and watched as she hovered above me. I could not tell what parts were me and which her, we were truly one, and all of us was shrieking with delight.

It could have been hours, I had no way to measure, but only intense thirst stopped us and suddenly Bella was gone, chasing after an animal I heard crashing through the woods so uselessly.

Bella felled it with a single blow and attached her lips to it's neck.

"Go feed," Emmett said, instantly at my side.

I grinned and chased after Bella and brought down my own meal.

When I was done, I wiped my mouth with my hand and rubbed my belly.

"You have no idea how amazing that tastes. Human food is just...too horrible for words," I sighed. Never again would I have to chew and swallow down lumps of hideous animal flesh that had been cooked and destroyed and left tasteless and unappetising.

Bella was walking towards me, slowly, at human pace, not a drop of blood in sight. Her eyes were fixed on mine and Emmett coughed.

"Okay, two more hours then you two get to mind those kids while the rest of us work off the lust you have filled the air with. Two hours. I mean it. Don't make me come down here. If you do I will watch."

Bella smirked and I took her down and lowered my face between her thighs.

Now this tasted even better than animal blood.

X~x~X

Life sorted itself out. We trained with Deacon, teaching him how to fight to use up his vast supplies of energy and he could have taken on any warrior within the first year. Jasper taught him everything he knew, and my son soon surpassed his teacher.

Renesmee, our little girl, was equally determined to learn and Bella gave up with the frilly dresses and hair ribbons after more were destroyed than Alice could replace fast enough.

She was her mother's child, except for the long auburn ringlets that were often muddy and tangled. She loved the bubble baths that inevitably followed and Alice took the opportunity to dress her prettily and take a million photos for her baby albums before our little wildcat started rough housing with anyone who would take her on. She loved this type of play with Emmett, and Deacon soon decided he needed to team with her, not fight against her.

Emmett played along at first, letting Renesmee win, but once Deacon worked with her, he had to fight them both for real.

It seemed our children were stronger and more resilient than their elders.

Renesmee speaks and is coaxing her brother to be more vocal, he has a much smaller vocabulary than she does, but she is an excellent teacher and she encourages him verbally.

Now and then she lets things slip, like the day Deacon declared he wished he had a brother as well and Renesmee answered that she had bitten her cord in utero to force her mother's change and to ensure there would be no more baby Cullens. She didn't want to share the limelight with any more siblings.

The bloodlust for humans fades slowly, although Bella and I have missed out on the handicap, both our offspring will need to learn a lot of self control before we can consider returning to the places in the world with human population, but for now, this is enough. We have my family, and we have our own family and that is more than we ever expected.

I can't help thinking there is a reason these two little vamps were born, and I do wonder what their future holds.

THE END


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